Eight research institutions across the country are participating in the DSWR project. Two of them — University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) and University of California, Davis — are working together in studies at a commercial dairy farm and an almond orchard.
Nicholas Clark, principal investigator for the dairy site, provided an update on what’s happening there.
Research focus: Studies are being conducted in a forage sorghum-triticale rotation to assess crop productivity, soil health and soil carbon changes through treatments comparing various soil health management practices to commonly used field practices. These treatments compare tillage practices and nutrient sources from liquid dairy manure, dried manure solids and composted manure.
Researchers are also measuring greenhouse gas emissions across these treatments to evaluate the potential of soil health management practices to mitigate soil greenhouse gas emissions.
What’s happening now: The farmer continues to implement tillage and fertility management practices for the different treatments on the farm. We continue to measure yield, nutrient and water inputs, soil GHG emissions, soil health characteristics and soil hydrology.
A preliminary finding: The farmer has yet to see significant differences in crop outcomes between commonly used field practices and soil health management systems.
Key challenge: A production-scale research project means we’ve had to negotiate the timing of our research activities with the farmer’s schedule. As the farmer makes decisions about when to plant, irrigate and harvest based on uncontrollable factors like weather and water availability, we’ve had to pivot rapidly to obtain critical data for the project. The farmer has been very helpful in this area simply by communicating openly and honestly with the research team.
Key success: The farmer still wants to work with us after three years of us telling him how to farm 80 acres of his ranch and getting in his way with our research equipment and activities.
Photos courtesy of Nicholas Clark, UC ANR
- (top) Luke Paloutzian takes a final plant stand count to help calculate the yield per acre in hand-harvested plots of sorghum for silage.
- (bottom) Ruben Chavez uses an auger to sample composted dairy manure for nutrient analysis prior to application to aid in prescribing an application rate.