08/10/06 No-till economics for summer fallow area

Farm and Ranch August 10, 2006 There is no question that no-till annual cropping systems in the traditional low rain fall winter wheat-summer fallow area of the inland northwest reduce erosion. Young: "Our engineers predict they will reduce airborne dust by about 94% during extreme wind events compared to the traditional winter wheat summer fallow system." That's Douglas Young of Washington State University who is an economist. And when an economist looks at the bottom line, that's where no-till annual cropping systems fall short compared to 100-year old summer fallow practices. Young: "On average the annual spring cropping no-till systems involving hard red spring wheat, soft white spring wheat, hard white spring wheat, including some oilseeds, have lagged summer fallow winter wheat by $25-$45 an acre and they don't work well at all during dry years when you have near crop failures or very low yields." Young does say today's higher fuel costs, along with lower priced glyphosate, has favored reduced tillage winter wheat summer fallow systems compared to conventional summer fallow. Young: "But was not sufficient to make the annual cropping no-till systems competitive with winter wheat summer fallow. Because as a matter of fact you are using more diesel when you put a crop in the ground every year." I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network