06/04/2008

Two, Two, Two Crops in One: See What Modified Relay Intercropping Can Do June 19

Writer:

Kurt Knebusch
knebusch.1@osu.edu
330-263-3776

Source:

Steve Prochaska, OSU Extension, Crawford County
prochaska.1@osu.edu
419-562-8731

BUCYRUS, Ohio — Ohio State University’s Sustainable Agriculture Team will sponsor a free public workshop on modified relay intercropping, the planting of soybeans into standing wheat, from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, June 19, in Bucyrus.

The program takes place at the university’s Unger Farm, 970 Nevada Road, where six years of tests on the practice have gone on and the next year is getting underway.

Results so far show favorable average yields of both crops plus lower chemical use, says workshop leader Steve Prochaska of Ohio State University Extension’s Crawford County office.

“Because the soil is under the cover of a growing crop for 12 months, and few if any pesticides are used, this system is beneficial to the environment,” he says.

Call (419) 562-8731 for more information.

Planting under modified relay intercropping, or MRI, takes place in late May and early June, typically by sowing soybeans into wheat with a grain drill or a tool bar planter.

A kind of double-cropping, the practice lets farmers harvest two crops in the same year while hedging risks and protecting the environment.

In replicated field trials at the Unger site, wheat and soybeans have averaged 73 and 28 bushels an acre, respectively. In good years, wheat has gone over 80 bushels an acre and soybeans 40.

Learn more at the workshop and by reading Prochaska’s OSU Extension fact sheet, “Modified Relay Intercropping,” free at county offices of OSU Extension or online at http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0504.html.

The program is part of a summerlong series by the Sustainable Agriculture Team, with “Grazing Meat Goats” next from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, June 28, at the Amazing Graze Boer Goat Farm, 4395 Richland Road NE, Pleasantville, Ohio. Pre-registration costs $10. For details, call (740) 468-1042.

The series is part of a larger coordinated schedule, the 2008 Summer Farm Tour Series, jointly sponsored by the Sustainable Agriculture Team, the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, Innovative Farmers of Ohio, the Conservation Security Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Ohio Forage and Grasslands Council.

Find the complete schedule — 29 tours and workshops plus six festivals — at http://www.oeffa.org /pdfs/08farmtourweb.pdf.

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