Here is the conclusion to the Will changing the rotation change it all? story:
With the winter grains causing Canada thistle to increase in his fields, Mr. Feely decided soon after this case was written to stop growing winter wheat in his rotation. As of this writing, he has gone back to his typical three-year rotation with corn, soybeans and spring-seeded small grains with underseeded red clover. Additionally, he uses a few years of alfalfa to control Canada thistle in fields where the thistle problem is the worst, as he has done in the past. He said “Once again I have come to understand that alfalfa seems to be the best tool that I have for suppressing Canada thistle.”
He feels he is meeting his soil conservation concerns because he has eliminated all fall deep tillage. The only exception is in the years when he grows a small grain underseeded in red clover, where he does a single tillage pass in late fall to set back the red clover in preparation for the next year’s crop. However, much of the red clover still remains after the tillage pass to offer decent soil protection over the winter. He also leaves the soybean and corn crop residue on his other fields undisturbed through the winter to cover and protect the soil, while building his soil organic matter. He has noticed that the crop residue catches more winter snow to provide even better soil protection.
Acknowledgments
This project was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Organic Transitions Program under award number 2013-51106-21005.
This project was also supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service, National Organic Program under the Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP) in the Midwest region.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.