The Rural Voice, 1980-05, Page 5pounds of nitrogen to the corn crop that
tollows it, in addition to the hay or haylage
the farmer harvests.
Despite the drawbacks to continuous
cropping, it's become a way of life for
many farmers. In an article he wrote on
some of the problems of monoculture, Prof.
Ketcheson said in the southern part of
southern Ontario, it's now estimated half
the total farm area is in continuous crop.
He said results from runoff test plots
show that "under Ontario conditions, up to
ten times more soil can be lost from
continuous row crops than from forage -
based rotations."
Tests on these same runoff plots have
shown that rotations with corn, cereals and
hay can reduce the soil and water losses to
a fraction of the losses with continuous
corn. Also, yield benefits often result from
,:ie improved physical condition of the soil
Corn, one of the best things to happen to agriculture. But
problems are starting to arise. Here, corn specialists take a look
at one farmer's field.
(OMAF Photo)
and nutrient supplies.
Since the future of Ontario's agriculture
is still going to be strongly tied to corn,
(and white beans will continue as a major
crop in our tri -county area), soil scientists
are looking for some hard solution to
continuous cropping systems. But, as
Terry Daynard is aware, a number of the
solutions suggested aren't going to prove
popular with farmers, especially in light of
the current economic situation.
The reason for problems with continous
corn crops still isn't well understood.
Terry Daynard said the most common
explanation is that corn doesn't add
enough organic matter to the soil, but in
actual fact "few crops are capable of
returning as much organic matter as 100
bushel corn crop from which only the grain
portion is removed."
Also, past research has suggested that
root organic matter is more valuable than
that of tops, but soil structure is better
after oats when compared to corn, and root
weight is much greater with the latter.
Prof. Daynard believes the problem may be
that corn roots are too deep to prove
valuable for soil structure.
Right now University of Guelph
researchers are starting a series of short
and long-term experiments to determine
profitable alternatives for improving soil
structure on cash -crop corn farms, but
Prof. Ketcheson said it will likely be five
years at least before the results of those
experiments are in.
Farmers themselves are also organizing
a "Save The Soil" conference, which will
be held in Toronto next December, to
discuss row -cropping and its effect on soil
structure and erosion.
In the meantime, before the research is
THE RURAL VOICE/MAY 1980 PG. 3