Saturday, 15 July 2006
152-4

Drought Avoidance Using Skiprow Corn at Akron, Colorado.

Merle F. Vigil, David Nielsen, Brien Henry, Joseph Benjamin, Robert Klien, and Francisco Calderon. USDA-ARS, Central Great Plains Research Station, 40335 County Rd. GG, Akron, CO 80720-1029

The Central Great Plains region (CGPR) of the USA is a net importer of feed-grains primarily corn. This is because the CGPR of the USA has the greatest concentraion of large animal feeding operations in the world. Ten million ha of the CGPR is cultivated dryland. Dryland corn yields in the semi-arid portion of the CGPR are unstable primarily due to drought during the critical reproductive stages of corn development. Researchers in the region have just recently re-discovered and old method of drought avoidance (skip-row)that could stabilize dryland corn yields in the CGPR. The idea behind this method of droght avoidance is to plant dryland corn in wider rows than is typically done. Typically corn is planted in rows spaced 0.76 m apart. Using the skip-row approach the same number of plants per ha are planted in paired rows spaced 1.50 to 2.28 m apart. The corn uses the same amount of stored soil water as conventionally planted corn. It is just that it is not able to "get" to the reservoir of stored soil water in the wide inter-row area until flowering and thereby avoiding drought during that critical period. We have measured significant yield advantages utilizing the skip-row method in both research and on farm trials and that data will be presented in this poster.

Back to 3.2B Dryland Conservation Technologies: Innovations for Enhancing Productivity and Sustainability - Poster
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