Joint Research

Gains to be made from the long-term rotation trial at Ridgetown
Dr. David Hooker, University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus

The vast majority of current research in agronomy is based on short-term results (e.g., yield response to applied nitrogen or to plant population). However, it takes many years to determine the impact of crop management decisions on soil structure, and likewise, it takes many years to build structure for high productivity. Long-term studies are critically important to determine the impact of management on returns in the long term, and to determine the stability of net returns from year to year.

The main purposes of this project is to determine the yield formation process that are in uniquely near steady state conditions in various rotations across tillage systems as well as to identify the stress factors on corn, soy and wheat performance and investigate ways to mitigate those stress factors. Lastly, the project aims to invest efforts toward the development of an Ontario Soil Health Test through varied soil qualities established in the plots, similar to the test developed by Cornell University.

The long-term rotation-tillage-nitrogen project has been managed by Doug Young since 1995 on Brookston soil at University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus. The project in Ridgetown is on a soil type that challenges the feasibility of pure no-till. The crop rotation sequences for the past 13 years include: continuous corn, continuous soy, corn-soy, soy-wheat, and corn-soy-wheat under-seeded. All of these rotations have a split of a moldboard system and a no-till system. Each corn and wheat plot is further split into four different nitrogen rates. New production systems at these trials will be deployed to suit best management practices on this soil type.

Producers in Ontario need assurances to deploy cropping systems with consistent high net returns in the short term, while maintaining or improving soil productivity in the long term for realizing genetic gains predicted by breeders and the biotech industry.

This project is supported through ORD.