Forages, Pastures, and Managing Water in the Field
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this morning's, webinar of Field Notes. Before we get started, I just wanted to have a few quick comments. This is meant to be more of a discussion based, so we do have the q and a at the bottom of our screen. And so please feel free to use that at any time during the webinar. And these sessions are brought to you by the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council as well as the Minnesota Corn Research and Promotion Council.
Eric Yu:And with that, I'd like to, introduce our guests. We're happy to have both both doctor Beatriz Bizzuti, who is the new Forage, extension state specialist who just joined in April. And we also have Troy Salzer who is an extension educator up in Saint Louis County, but services a lot of, central to Northern Minnesota. And then, with our drainage topic for today, we do have Tim who is our egg water management extension educator who is based out of both the Mankato and Farmington office. So with that, I'll turn it over to doctor Beatriz Basuti to talk about forages.
Beatriz Bizzuti:Hi, Eric. Thank you, for the introduction. So today, I will talk a bit about alfalfa and on first cut alfalfa. So what should growers be taking a look as they approach the first harvesting of the season? And I know some producers have already harvest this and are some and some are still waiting for more biomass depend of the region that they are.
Beatriz Bizzuti:But I want to go back to early spring and reinforce the importance of assessing on winter injury injury in in the stent. So, it's really important on early, spring to take a look on the stent density. That should be on more than 40 stem per square foot or five plants per square foot. And, also, dig on some plants, around 10 plants, and take a look to the crown and root colors. So the the crown and root color a half crown and root and root should be with a potato color, so a cream color, and should, not have dark brown spots on that.
Beatriz Bizzuti:That dark brown colors are on some brute rods that can indicate in winter injury. So understand how they stand have overwintering and also taking consideration the age of your stand will help you to make the best decision for the first cut the first cut of the the growing season. So second topic I would like to to mention is alfalfa buivo. So my extension colleagues has been reporting a significant infestation, and producers are, cutting early to decrease the foliation. So just to remember, alfalfa weevil larva that will feed, leaves and defoliate the stems.
Beatriz Bizzuti:And lee the leaves are the most important component, because they are rich in, crude protein and also in digestible nutrients. So if we are losing that leaves, we are decreasing forage and nutritive value, so quality. So and one, approach to deal with that pest pressure is cutting early. So when we cut and expose, the the cannot, to dry, we will, that will help, to con to control the the larva. So then, we have the question, should should we wait on harvest early, and how early should we harvest?
Beatriz Bizzuti:So that will depend in of your stem age and also on how your stem have overwintering. So how much winter injury have you had in that stem. Why? Because when we harvest early, we are for sure control the the help control the alfalfa, buvo. But remember that that stand was many months in a winter, scenario without with leaves, complements, doing photosynthesis.
Beatriz Bizzuti:So the plant was using the root, the below ground biomass preserves, and carbohydrates to keep the the metabolism and keep it alive. So when we, leave from the we we finish the winter and start the spring is the time that the plants start to do photosynthesis and then allow the plant to replenish that carbohydrate that was used during the winter. So, spring is a really important moment when the plant is replenish replenishing, that below ground biomass. And if we harvest too early, that can impact the the capacity of these these plants to overcome, stress across the growing season, for for example, the drought resilience, and also, can impact the default the subsequent cuts and as well persistency. So everything, when we think about, actions on on farm, everything is about trade offs.
Beatriz Bizzuti:So we have to, remember that if we are harvesting early, we can be impacting, in one side, we can be on impacting this unreserved root reserves and persistence, but we also, can can gain on forage quality. And maybe on later later on season, you can have the opportunity to have, extra cut. So on the farm level, as I mentioned, everything involves trade offs. And on alfalfa, the trades offs are between quality, production, quantity, and persistence. How many years do you want in your field being productive?
Beatriz Bizzuti:So the message I leave is that spring first cut should take in consideration your stand age, winter injury, and pest pressure, and farm goals. So what is more important on for, your farm situation is production. So you need quantity, You need, quality, or you need an quantity and quality. And about the persist persistence, are you, is persistence important on on your management? Do you wanna your the fee the that field for more than three years, for example?
Beatriz Bizzuti:So you will have always to to to see the system and a system level to understand what you can do to manage and achieve your goals. So this is what I I have to to tell you today. And before I forget, we have a lot of wonderful material on the UMN extension, website, and there's a, a material about FafoWivo, from, our co extension colleagues, and you can find the thresholds for alpha for cut early or even on using set sites on that materials and is a good source of information.
Eric Yu:Thank you, Beatrice. And, we can add that to our description as well, some of those links that Beatrice is referring to. And so we'll, transition that over to Troy, to give a update on pastures.
Troy Salzer:Chris has done a really nice job in relationship to laying out some of the groundwork in relationship to thinking about management of alfalfa. A few other things that I have seen and many of you have experienced out in the fields is that there was a fair amount of winter kill that occurred. We're seeing much lower yields on that first harvest, and it really gives a pause for you as producers as we look at productivity in general of our forage. If you continue to maintain that stand or potentially work that up and and plant into some other forage producing crops such as sorghum sudan grass or other such annuals, even late planted corn in relationship for chopping at later point. And so this is the time that you need to be thinking about that.
Troy Salzer:We still have plenty of season left to, take advantage of, the growing. Of course, we're concerned about moisture in this case, and so utilizing something like sorghum sudan grass that, can produce really high quality feed while being able to take the, drought sort of conditions or drier conditions that we have. Additionally, as we look around the countryside, we see a lot of livestock out on pastures perhaps a a bit early, especially for those where they have set stocking, where they just turn them out on pasture. I realize that I've seen a tremendous amount of very, very short, early matured, grasses that have already started to head out. There is some benefit to actually clipping that off, especially if we see, potential rains coming or if we've experienced a pretty good shot of rain.
Troy Salzer:By clipping those heads off, we'll put that, those grasses back into a vegetative state, and we'll actually get a lot more production throughout the the season, in that particular case. With all of this, it really does encourage people to think about utilizing, strategic rotational grazing in relationship to that because then you give the plants that opportunity, as Beatrice talked about, redeveloping those root reserves, getting those roots deeper into the soil so they can capture not only nutrient but also water at a much deeper level. And oftentimes, with these very short patter pastures where they are potentially overgrazed, we really need to be thinking about ways to help those plants be healthier with the aspects of less competition from weeds, perhaps a little bit of fertility. And, actually, rest is a very important component of that so that those plants have the opportunity to regrow. With that in mind, thinking about pulling the animals off and putting them in a dry lot is a very, valid option.
Troy Salzer:Feeding them stored feeds so that your pastures can actually regenerate would be a really good approach to, helping, overall productivity.
Eric Yu:Thanks, Troy. That was, yeah. We're we're kind of towards that halfway point. Is there we'll transition to, Drainage, but if, Beatrice or Troy, if you have any last kind of things that you wanna mention, then we'll have an opportunity at the end to see if there's more questions that kinda go towards, both
Tim Gieseke:of you.
Beatriz Bizzuti:I think I would just, add on what Troy said about winter queue. Yeah. We had some winter queue around here, and I have seen people on overseeding grasses. So that's also on perennial grasses is perennial grasses in that case, and that's also an opportunity if you want to add some grasses on your stand, for the the next year as as well. That's one strategy to overcome that winter queue is overseeding, as Troy mentioned, annuals, but also perennial grasses for if your stand is, newly established stand.
Eric Yu:Thanks, Beatrice. Alright. And so with that, I, well, we've had some unexpected rain this past weekend and very timely, especially after a relatively dry season. So despite these dry salt conditions, we did observe some standing water in the fields, and, obviously, standing waters can, delay field operations, reduce crop growth, and contribute to management challenges, which highlights the importance of effective drainage system. So because of that, we invited Tim to, be a guest on today's speaker, as a speaker today just because it it did feel very timely.
Eric Yu:So I'd like to pass it to Tim to kinda talk about, drainage, but specifically on precision drainage.
Tim Gieseke:Yeah. Well, thank you, Eric. Yeah. So I'll just get a little introduction. I've been, with the extension service a little over a year and a half, egg water management.
Tim Gieseke:I'm out of Farmington and Mankato. And, my first focus was, the Minnesota irrigation program. Doctor Basu Sharma has put that on for has organized for several years, basically from Dakota as you go northwest, the irrigation belt there. And then, in the last six months, turned my focus a little more to, to create the Minnesota drainage program. So a similar program where industry and, government and academia and researchers converge, around of, you know, what is the future the the current future needs of of drainage.
Tim Gieseke:You know, drainage has been around for a century or so. You know, much of the, early part is, I'm not sure the exact term they like to use. Sometimes it's random, but I think more like targeted drainage where you would go up swales, you'd find low spots. You know, the patterns were irregular, but, a lot of hand dug or actually, you know, are not very efficient equipment. So you found the low spots and and got drainage where where, it was, most economically viable to to add and physically, I guess, feasible.
Tim Gieseke:Then, you know, we've moved into, in the last few decades into pattern drainage. So the equipment and technology now made it available for, you know, you know, many producers with with large enough equipment and some technological skills to install and allow contractors to efficiently install, systems. And and the and that so we went from kind of this random targeted to pattern, and the patterns, as you've seen on the countryside, are a lot of, you know, parallel lines across the fields, spacings between forty, fifty, sixty, eighty feet depending on, you know, what what the soil drainage capacity is. And that that's really the predominant, method. In the last decade, there's the technologies to, adopt precision drainage.
Tim Gieseke:I'm not sure how how wide that that term is. We've been using it and been, in the industry, the Ag Drainage Management Coalition and, and others have been, discussing precision drainage now for several years. Last year, they initiated the, a conservation drainage task force, because these technologies and equipment are making it more feasible to to really look at precision drainage. So precision drainage, is kind of a combination, I think, of the of the two previous methods I mentioned. So, you precision drainage is about looking at the soil's capacity as soil groups.
Tim Gieseke:At any precision with agriculture, you really do go back to the soils so that this is where, this aligns. So instead of having a you know, if you visual it from a from a drone perspective, you have these these straight lines in in, in pattern, You would have a kind of a mosaic of different spacings and different, you know, directions of the tile systems depending on the predominant soil types and the topography. And the the the objective there is if you have tight soils, you want, you know, the drainage intensity, the the the ability for or the capacity of water to move through the soil changes with soil types. And so if you have very slow drainage intensity, your spacing will be closer. But if you have, you know, looser soils or or lighter soils where moderate moves, you would would make the spacings wider.
Tim Gieseke:So there's a you know, the the goal of precision drainage is, you know, is to optimize your your economic return, of course, and to create them a uniform drainage pattern throughout the field relative to really horizontal or vertical. So, you can imagine, you know, when you when you farm, consistency is uniformity is is very helpful when you when you farm because you can do everything the same day. You don't have a wet spot here and there to go through or or go around. And so when you look at precision drainage from that perspective, you're, you're you're capturing those differences of the soil and difference in topography. And in the topography end, as as you look at the subsoil or the the perched water table, it's gonna follow the topography of the land fairly fairly close.
Tim Gieseke:If you tile if you lay tile lines, up and down hills, you're you're not uniformly managing that water table.
Eric Yu:And
Tim Gieseke:the kind of, extreme example I I use just to make the point is when you put rain gutters on your house, you don't go up and down. You go with the you know, against the the against the, slope. And and that's kind of where precision drainage is. You try to follow the the topography, as as as well as possible to intercept those side hill seeps and those flows and not, lower particular parts of the slope or the field more than others. So you kinda look at so precision drainage is move the water uniformly horizontally as the soil drainage intensity needs, and then also vertically manage that water table at a consistent level.
Tim Gieseke:Now you you probably can imagine that having a consistent water table across the field is is provides that crop with a, you know, a uniform access to water and whereas yields and harvest windows are or maturities happen, you know, most, most consistently across the field. But so that's that's the production aspect of of, precision drainage. And then one other the next step on there then is conservation drainage. So, precision drainage is really the prerequisite to manage that water table most consistently. And then by having the system laid out, you can start controlling that water table, depending on crop seasonal needs and things like that.
Tim Gieseke:So, they have water you're probably familiar with water control structures. It's really just a gate to allow, water to, back up into the system. So if you have a tile system that's, four four feet deep, three and a half feet feet, whatever, and, you can put, you know, stop logs in there and raise that up to the degree. Well, topography, limits that ability fairly quickly. As soon as you have a foot rise in the landscape, that water is going to, you know, not rise along with, with the topography.
Tim Gieseke:The industry has several products now. One is called a a water gate, which allows an in line, in the ground control structure that maintains, due to pressure and other physics, allows that water level to be maintained, you know, at at the foot level of topography. So you could, as you run these, laterals on the top on the on the on the contour and feed them into a main, that main then can be fitted with a water gate that allows management at the foot levels. And so you could have an entire field controlled a water table controlled with a single outlet structure. Now what is so you can see kind of benefits of that from a production perspective.
Tim Gieseke:We have a we're in some areas, we're moving into drought conditions. Do you want to bring that water table down to three feet, or do you want to, you know, nudge that up a little bit to allow some capillary action to feed that supply that young crop? And, you know, and so there's there's management there. Right? That's that's, that's the the piece there.
Tim Gieseke:Tile systems are kind of one and done, and you leave them. And if they drain, you don't do anything with them. And so this adds another level of management to it. So there's time. There's there's other there's other risks involved.
Tim Gieseke:Now to, so then you then you have to decide. You can put soil sensors in there. And, you know, kinda like from the irrigation perspective, we manage water from the top down. You could manage irrigators from the bottom or or water from the bottom up with soil sensors and then use those stop logs to manage that. You know, the the the biggest risk then is holding that water table up and then getting in an unexpected rain where you you don't have to that you don't want that field inundated.
Tim Gieseke:And there's been research on over the decade or so of how those decisions affect yield. And and you can kinda guess in dry years, it's it's often a benefit. In wet years, if you're not managing that low enough, you can have some impacts to yield due to, you know you know, water logging the the the soil profile. And now to and and then it'll go to the the control structure itself. So there's there's stop logs in there.
Tim Gieseke:You could imagine if you have, you know, 35 fields around, that's that's quite a ordeal to manage. They have technologies that, you know, a lot of things can be managed by the phone, you know, moving those stop logs as you need That that's still kind of on the expensive end, depending on the size of the field. The economic returns may not be there. But then they also have some programmable, ones where they move automatically depending on seasonal needs. You can, you know, adjust them as as the season goes on and conditions change, but essentially, have the ability to, you know, monitor those, monitor soil, sense you know, monitor, yes, soil moisture, and then have kind of that, you know, kind of parallel to kind of the irrigators who we manage a lot of these by their phone.
Tim Gieseke:Now drainage has that capability as well. And then once you have the the control structures and then there's there's other, conservation drainage components on there, bioreactors, saturated buffers. But once you start controlling the ability to manage your flows, it provides you opportunities to manage the water table as well as some of the public benefits downstream from the field. So I'll kinda leave it at that. And have any questions on there?
Eric Yu:Well, Tim, so sounds like you can unlock a lot of benefits just doing precision drainage, and there's potentially a lot of a big learning curve with this. Where where is, if anyone is interested in doing precision drainage, where can they start?
Tim Gieseke:Yeah. There's there's a a handful of contractors that are really sold on this, and and and the industry is promoting it. And the USDA is is promoting it as well and and subs and subsidizing or cost share or whatever. And so that that's a good question. So it's it's not as as broadly known yet.
Tim Gieseke:I mean, your soil water conservation districts are starting to, you know, hear things about it and some are more involved than actually. It's and so the Minnesota drainage program that, I have an event August 13 at Farming America, and I had one in, La Center in March, and I'll have a one in Brown County as well. So really just trying to get the industry to the contractors to be educated on on this. It it takes a little different skill to do precision drainage mapping and and layout than just pattern. And so there needs to be a comfort level for them to to to, you know, promote that.
Tim Gieseke:Right? It's hard to promote a product that you're not confident in or willing to do. But so I yeah. That's a good question. It's it's kinda we're just kinda getting that push out there.
Tim Gieseke:So conservation districts, first contact me, and then maybe ask there's several contractors that are that really do believe in this and, and promote it. So
Eric Yu:Yeah. So I it it all sounds very exciting, and I think that it it really does look it's kind of the future of farming is precision, agriculture precision drainage.
Tim Gieseke:Well, here here is an interesting so the conservation drainage network, is going on in Michigan right now, and I was just participating online yesterday. And, one of the things they said is the yield you know, the 1.9 yield increase of bushel of corn per acre on test plots that do not have drainage, it's the yield has been flat. So all the technologies of genetics and, you know, all these tech do not they're not realized unless you have drainage. Okay? That's and then I think what we can look at the next level is by having, managed drainage, we may be able to, you know, utilize those genetics and other technologies at another another step up.
Tim Gieseke:So
Eric Yu:Yeah. No. All exciting. Well, we are, at that 08:30 mark. So I I do wanna, close out today and just thank our guests.
Eric Yu:Thank you, doctor Beatriz Zuti, Troy, and, Tim for just joining us today and providing your expertise on, some exciting topics and timely topics. We do wanna also thank the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council as well as the Minnesota Core Research and Promotion Council. We do have a survey, once you log off that we re do really appreciate you taking. And then, just a reminder that we will be back next week, where we'll discuss soybean assessment as well as, your post emergent herbicide consideration. So, I just wanna make sure to mention that everyone has a great, day and rest of the week.
Eric Yu:And, yeah, thank you. Perfect.
