NRCS Small Grain Iowa, Minnesota, & Wisconsin Project

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.