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

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 peawheat (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.

Legume, cropping intensity, and N-fertilization effects on soil attributes and processes from an eight-year-old semiarid wheat system

“…Best management practices of spring soil sampling (to at least 1 m) and subsequent soil N credits should be determinants of N rates applied to crops following legumes. Accordingly, after four legume rotations in the current long-term study, the LGM-W rotation with no N fertilizer produced grain yields and protein concentrations equal to the F-W system, which received 139 kg N ha -1 (Miller et al 2015). The effect of the LGM-W rotation on wheat yield was not equaled by any other legume system, including the P-W system or a pea hay-W system.…”

“…This finding substantiates that increased PMN in the LGM-W system likely increased soil N-supplying power and hence wheat yield. Not only are legumeintensive systems beneficial to soil health, but through increased N supplying power, they can be more economically resilient to changes in grain protein discounts and N rate (Miller et al 2015).…”

“…The site is less arid than most Montana wheat-growing regions, but with similar late-spring to early summer peak precipitation patterns followed by late-summer drought. Additional site characteristics, experimental design, and some management information have been described in a previous publication (Dusenbury et al 2008) and in Miller et al (2015). The site had a *30-years history of intensive tillage, but had not been tilled since 1999.…”

Nitrogen management for grain yield and protein in the Northern Great Plains

“…Four‐year discounted present value of net returns in U.S. dollars per acre to labor and land for pea–wheat (P‐W) and fallow–wheat (F‐W) with full and half recommended N rate (Miller et al, 2015). …”

Winter Pea: Promising New Crop for Washington's Dryland Wheat-Fallow Region

“…Pulse crops are cool-season annual grain legumes mostly grown in the northern tier states of North Dakota and Montana, the high-precipitation (>450 mm average annual) Palouse region of Washington and Idaho (NASS, 2017), and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba (Statistics Canada, 2017). During the past 20 years, pulse crops have become an integral component of diversified and profitable dryland cropping systems in the Canadian and US northern Great Plains (Miller et al, 2003(Miller et al, , 2015Chen et al, 2006;Long et al, 2014).…”