IMPROVING SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE THROUGH ON-FARM RESEARCH AND DEMONSTRATION

This proposal seeks to continue some projects already begun and to initiate several others in The Pennsylvania State University's On-Farm Research (OFR) program. The proposed and recently initiated research will explore areas to improve sustainability of various production systems. Some will be organic, others will be conventional production. Several cover crop studies presently underway will be continued on several farms. They will be continued through the end of 2008, the termination date for a NE SARE Partnership project that was secured to provide additional support for this work. The focus of cover crop studies will be to reduce weed pressure on cash crops in the rotation and improve soil fertility. Increasing nitrogen production from legumes in an age of increasing energy costs will be a necessity. The OFR coordinator will continue to provide guidance to a county extension educator for a dairy feeding study begun in 2007. The focus of this effort is to demonstrate that through reducing the amount of protein fed lactating dairy cows, animal performance can be maintained and possibly improved while reducing the feeding cost of milking cows. The project is being conducted on ten farms. A Pennsylvania Soybean Promotion board funded project will be initiated during 2009 to develop a soybean network in PA of growers who seek to conduct their own on-farm evaluations. They employ some of the latest computerized planting and harvesting mapping capabilities. Coupled with aerial photography, these tools will aid in the identification of yield and profit-limiting factors in soybean production. Researchers from Penn State and Rodale Institute will continue a project that seeks more consistent performance for farmers who want to grow heavy cover crops and use the relatively new concept of crop rolling to control them. The OFR program is supporting this project through three on-farm sites in PA, NY, and MD. Proven and experimental practices/treatments will be utilized on these private farms to demonstrate the potential for this technology to reduce or eliminate the use of herbicide in a subsequent corn or soybean crop. The recent large increase in fertilizer prices, especially nitrogen, has prompted strong promotion of several products that are added to N fertilizer to reduce losses to volatilization and leaching. Two on-farm studies will be conducted during 2009 to complement one being conducted at the experiment station to quantify relative efficiencies of N utilization when urea is treated with commercially available products. A dairy cropping systems trial, supported by NE SARE, will commence during 2009 at the Agricultural Experiment Station at Penn State. Components of this study, overseen by the OFR program, will be tested on several smaller dairy farms. The OFR coordinator will assist project leaders in recruiting farmers to serve on a project advisory panel. Other areas of research are identified as the on-farm research coordinator continues to discuss production problems and possibilities for collaborative research with producers, county and state Cooperative Extension personnel, PASA organizers, and representatives of other agencies.