NRCS Small Grain Iowa, Minnesota, & Wisconsin Project
Farmers in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin who receive cost share to add a year of small grains to a corn and soybean rotation provide their production data from each year in the rotation. This data will be used to understand the environmental impact of extending rotations by an additional year and communicate these benefits to companies with an interest in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chain.
Engagement Targets
Notes: (1) Minor fluctuations in the number of retained growers is expected from year to year. These fluctuations may be due to year-over-year crop rotation effects or other factors beyond the control of the project. Enrolled acres represent the total number of acres on an individual farm in a specific year. The ability to report enrolled acres is based on the Fieldprint Project Standard requirement that individual growers enrolled in projects enter at least 10% of the acres managed for a specific crop. (2) Entered acres represent the actual number of enrolled acres for which data is entered in the Fieldprint Platform for analysis.
Objectives
We have pushed to enter more data in the calculator this year to refine our estimates of GHG emissions across diversified rotations. Early estimates show lower GHG emissions in small grain cropping rotations compared with corn-bean rotations, across the entire rotation. More data will help us calibrate this relationship further. We've been doing tile monitoring on small grain fields to continue to quantify the effect of small grains and covers on water quality. Together these results will be presented at the Soil and Water Conservation Society's annual meeting in July of 2021.
In 2020 we made a large push to enter more small grain production information, as well as diversified cropping system information into the Calculator. We will be analyzing this data in more detail in the next few months and will be showcasing the results at the Soil and Water Conservation Society annual meeting. Looking at previous data we do see that adding in a small grain to a corn-soybean rotation lowers the average GHG emissions across the rotation. More data will help us quantify this relationship more.
We are using tile monitoring data to capture how small grains improve water quality. Initial observations of the data support our hypothesis that small grains lower nitrate-N concentrations from tile water outlets. These results will be shared with the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Center.
Once again, we'd appreciate models for small grain crops other than winter and spring wheat. Most of the data we enter are for oats and cereal rye. Many of our farmers also harvest their small grain as forage and there is no silage or forage harvest option for small grains, there is only the option for harvesting them as grain or entering corn silage.
Perhaps more urgently, we'd really appreciate a silage option for small grain crops. Some of our farmers harvest small grains as silage instead of grain, however there is no way to enter yield (as in tons of biomass) for a small grain crop.
Participants
Project Lead Organization
Implementation Partner
Project Details
- Iowa
- Adair County
- Adams County
- Allamakee County
- Appanoose County
- Audubon County
- Benton County
- Black Hawk County
- Boone County
- Bremer County
- Buchanan County
- Buena Vista County
- Butler County
- Calhoun County
- Carroll County
- Cass County
- Cedar County
- Cerro Gordo County
- Cherokee County
- Chickasaw County
- Clarke County
- Clay County
- Clayton County
- Clinton County
- Crawford County
- Dallas County
- Davis County
- Decatur County
- Delaware County
- Des Moines County
- Dickinson County
- Dubuque County
- Emmet County
- Fayette County
- Floyd County
- Franklin County
- Fremont County
- Greene County
- Grundy County
- Guthrie County
- Hamilton County
- Hancock County
- Hardin County
- Harrison County
- Henry County
- Howard County
- Humboldt County
- Ida County
- Iowa County
- Jackson County
- Jasper County
- Jefferson County
- Johnson County
- Jones County
- Keokuk County
- Kossuth County
- Lee County
- Linn County
- Louisa County
- Lucas County
- Lyon County
- Madison County
- Mahaska County
- Marion County
- Marshall County
- Mills County
- Mitchell County
- Monona County
- Monroe County
- Montgomery County
- Muscatine County
- O'Brien County
- Osceola County
- Page County
- Palo Alto County
- Plymouth County
- Pocahontas County
- Polk County
- Pottawattamie County
- Poweshiek County
- Ringgold County
- Sac County
- Scott County
- Shelby County
- Sioux County
- Story County
- Tama County
- Taylor County
- Union County
- Van Buren County
- Wapello County
- Warren County
- Washington County
- Wayne County
- Webster County
- Winnebago County
- Winneshiek County
- Woodbury County
- Worth County
- Wright County
- Minnesota
- Aitkin County
- Anoka County
- Becker County
- Beltrami County
- Benton County
- Big Stone County
- Blue Earth County
- Brown County
- Carlton County
- Carver County
- Cass County
- Chippewa County
- Chisago County
- Clay County
- Clearwater County
- Cook County
- Cottonwood County
- Crow Wing County
- Dakota County
- Dodge County
- Douglas County
- Faribault County
- Fillmore County
- Freeborn County
- Goodhue County
- Grant County
- Hennepin County
- Houston County
- Hubbard County
- Isanti County
- Itasca County
- Jackson County
- Kanabec County
- Kandiyohi County
- Kittson County
- Koochiching County
- Lac qui Parle County
- Lake County
- Lake of the Woods County
- Le Sueur County
- Lincoln County
- Lyon County
- Mahnomen County
- Marshall County
- Martin County
- McLeod County
- Meeker County
- Mille Lacs County
- Morrison County
- Mower County
- Murray County
- Nicollet County
- Nobles County
- Norman County
- Olmsted County
- Otter Tail County
- Pennington County
- Pine County
- Pipestone County
- Polk County
- Pope County
- Ramsey County
- Red Lake County
- Redwood County
- Renville County
- Rice County
- Rock County
- Roseau County
- Scott County
- Sherburne County
- Sibley County
- St. Louis County
- Stearns County
- Steele County
- Stevens County
- Swift County
- Todd County
- Traverse County
- Wabasha County
- Wadena County
- Waseca County
- Washington County
- Watonwan County
- Wilkin County
- Winona County
- Wright County
- Yellow Medicine County
- Wisconsin
- Adams County
- Ashland County
- Barron County
- Bayfield County
- Brown County
- Buffalo County
- Burnett County
- Calumet County
- Chippewa County
- Clark County
- Columbia County
- Crawford County
- Dane County
- Dodge County
- Door County
- Douglas County
- Dunn County
- Eau Claire County
- Florence County
- Fond du Lac County
- Forest County
- Grant County
- Green County
- Green Lake County
- Iowa County
- Iron County
- Jackson County
- Jefferson County
- Juneau County
- Kenosha County
- Kewaunee County
- La Crosse County
- Lafayette County
- Langlade County
- Lincoln County
- Manitowoc County
- Marathon County
- Marinette County
- Marquette County
- Menominee County
- Milwaukee County
- Monroe County
- Oconto County
- Oneida County
- Outagamie County
- Ozaukee County
- Pepin County
- Pierce County
- Polk County
- Portage County
- Price County
- Racine County
- Richland County
- Rock County
- Rusk County
- Sauk County
- Sawyer County
- Shawano County
- Sheboygan County
- St. Croix County
- Taylor County
- Trempealeau County
- Vernon County
- Vilas County
- Walworth County
- Washburn County
- Washington County
- Waukesha County
- Waupaca County
- Waushara County
- Winnebago County
- Wood County