Pea in Rotation with Wheat Reduced Uncertainty of Economic Returns in Southwest Montana

By P. Miller, A. Bekkerman, Clain Jones, Macdonald H. Burgess, J. Holmes, R. Engel. 2015

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Published in Agron. J. 107:541–550 (2015) doi:10.2134/agronj14.0185 Available freely online through the author-supported open access option. Copyright © 2015 by the American Society of Agronomy, 5585 Guilford Road, Madison, WI 53711. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. ABSTRACT Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is increasingly being rotated with wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in Montana. Our objective was to compare economic net returns among wheat-only and pea–wheat systems during an established 4-yr crop rotation. e experimental design included three wheat-only (tilled fallow–wheat, no-till fallow–wheat, no-till continuous wheat) and three no-till pea– wheat (pea–wheat, pea brown manure–wheat, and pea forage–wheat) systems as main plots, and high and low available N rates as subplots. Net returns were calculated as the di erence between market revenues and operation and input costs associated with machinery, seed and seed treatment, fertilizer, and pesticides. Gross returns for wheat were adjusted to re ect grain protein at “ at” and “sharp” discount/premium schedules based on historical Montana elevator schedules. Cumulative net returns were calculated for four scenarios including high and low available N rates and at and sharp protein discount/premium schedules. Pea–wheat consistently had the greatest net returns among the six systems studied. Pea fallow–wheat systems exhibited greater economic stability across scenarios but had greater 4-yr returns (US$287 ha–1) than fallow–wheat systems only under the low N rate and sharp protein discount schedule scenario. We concluded that pea–wheat systems can reduce net return uncertainties relative to wheat-only systems under contrasting N fertility regimes, and variable wheat protein discount schedules in southwestern Montana. is implies that pea–wheat rotations, which protected wheat yield and/or protein levels under varying N fertility management, can reduce farmers’ exposure to annual economic variability.

Subfields: Agronomy and Crop Science, Plant Science, Soil Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6315813bdfd06875823acd4cabd3250a33d7f09e

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