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 Universitys 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. Trials are already underway on two 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 continued during 2008 to evaluate when soy stand loss occurs and to learn of the benefits for using soy seed treatments. Stands in marked plots will be sequentially counted to document when loss is occurring. Should results indicate that most loss occurs prior to emergence or early establishment, most likely because of disease, this may indicate a need for increased use of seed treatments or other means to limit the impact of these pests. Supported with a NE SARE Research and Education grant, 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 to complement one being conducted at the experiment station to quantify relative efficiencies of N utilization when urea is treated with commercially available products. This project will likely be repeated in 2009 and 2010. 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.