After being initially sceptical about the value of an overseas study tour, I have been truly convinced of the value of ‘getting out of your patch’ – or in this case, ‘out of your country’ – for career development and to expand your horizons!
My study tour trip was courtesy of a travel bursary from the GRDC Emerging Leader Industry Award I received in February 2024, and support through Pinion. The recognition of the industry award was a privilege, with the travel bursary being an added bonus! I didn’t hesitate to organise a weed-focused study tour to the US, including multiple visits with Pinion US colleagues.
I recommend keeping an eye out for various grants or scholarships to facilitate an overseas study trip for those keen to see farming abroad. Keep an eye on: Nuffield, GRDC, Churchill Fellowship, AgriFutures, and Ag Bureau of SA to name a few bursary providers.
TRIP HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY LEARNINGS My itinerary covered:
- Colorado (farm visits, Colorado State University, and a visit to the Pinion Loveland office with Family Ag Business Consultant Davon Cook).
- Kansas (farm visits, trial sites, and time with the Pinion commodity risk team in Silver Lake, hosted by Eric Osterhaus).
- Virginia (farm visit and visit to the weed science team at Virginia Tech University).
- Nashville visit with Pinion US Farm Financial Business Advisor, Thomas Eatherly.
What do you mean no crop insurance (multi-peril) in Aus?
Regardless of what farm, consultant, or industry professional we visited, everyone was amazed at how in Aus we have no government subsidies, and especially no insurance support to guarantee our farm income in a dry or poor season.
From what I understood, the crop insurance scheme in the US allows growers to insure a % of their average crop income (yield x price) and will be paid out if they don’t achieve this… obviously with more complexities than this, depending on the policy! I heard someone say: “growers are spoilt with crop insurance, but also keen in mind it is the land of high extremes” meaning production exposure due to: snow, rain, tornadoes, drought, flood and heat.
Interestingly, because the crop insurance scheme influences crop income and gross margins, it was made clear that selecting a crop rotation in the US is influenced by the potential crop insurance payout. Even crop rotation trials in Kansas had a gross margin analysis completed showing “with or without” crop insurance. Ie. In western Kansas the most profitable rotation to grow might be: Wheat – Corn – Sorghum – Fallow, however, once crop insurance payouts are considered, sorghum is replaced by a second corn.
Growers and industry also mentioned several times that because the crop insurance guaranteed a minimum income many farm input costs (machinery, ag retail, fertiliser ect) are inflated as farming profits have been historically strong (and stable).
Weed management insights of interest
- Weed research investment in corn and soybeans is high. These crops are highly profitable and have large amounts of industry and private investment into agronomic advancements.
- I heard one grower in Kansas call wheat ‘poverty grass’, which amused me enough to write it down. Despite hard red winter wheat still being grown in large acres in Kansas, it lacks the attractiveness of other high value crops like corn and soybeans, and hence the investment in technology.
- Genetically modified herbicide traits are readily used in corn and soybeans. The latest GM hybrid soybean seed herbicide stack coming is a 5-way stack of: glyphosate, glufosinate, 2,4-D, dicamba, mesotrione (we know as Callisto®) - this hurts my agronomy brain a bit!
- At Colorado State University there were trials of GM herbicide traits in wheat. However, GM wheat has limited traction due to consumer resistance.
- Key weed issues to note were Palmer amaranth (pigweed), followed by water hemp, barnyard grass, henbit, lambs quarter and koschia. Many of these weeds exhibit challenging herbicide resistance problems, and I expect further issues to be looming in the future.
- HWSC (harvest weed seed control) in the form of seed mills has a small level of adoption in the mid-west. There has been and continues to be research trials to show that the mills are effective on Palmer amaranth, mainly in sorghum and soybeans, with less effectiveness in corn and wheat due to lack of capture at harvest. The challenges of grower adoption are similar to what we see here in Aus (capital cost, harvest capacity constraints and dealing with green material).
- There seemed to be reasonable adoption of the John Deere See & Spray™ system with 1,500 units reportedly running in the US. This is for the Premium (retro-fit) and Ultimate (dual tanks) systems with green on green and green on brown spraying camera spraying capabilities. There has been development of algorithms for green on green spraying in corn and soybean, with great success. Sorghum is next on the list for green on green algorithm development.
- These are many cover crop trials, for various agronomic reasons, including assessing the weed suppression benefits. Regardless of the trials, growers are adopting cover crops in the high rainfall areas (think 35-inch, 900mm rainfall areas) for agronomic and subsidy benefits. Growers can access a $90/acre subsidy for growing a cereal rye cover crop between their cash crops, with a higher subsidy rate paid if it is a multi-species crop.
- An interesting herbicide use pattern being trialled at Kansas State University was coating a granular fertiliser with a herbicide (i.e., Sakura®) and spreading prior to seeding wheat. After a quick google, this is known as “herbicide-impregnated fertiliser”, and apparently isn’t a new concept!
ZERO till vs FULL till
In my travels, there appeared to be a WIDE gap between the ‘die hard’ zero till farmers and conventional tillage farmers in the US. This was for farms of similar rotation and farm system (i.e., irrigation vs dryland). The gap seemed perhaps wider than what we see locally here in Aus. Industry best practice promotes minimum till, or lower disturbance practices like strip-till, to only disturb a small area by the seed row.
In both Colorado and Kansas, I was fortunate to visit two large broadacre zero till (“strip and disc”) farms, as well as various other farms implementing a full cultivation program ahead of planting corn.
Like we see here, there are many upsides to maximum stubble retention, and also some increased challenges, such as insect pressure during crop establishment. One interesting benefit from retained wheat stripper straw in Kansas is the increased snow capture during a snow blizzard. The wheat stripper straw captures the horizontally moving snow, allowing it to settle on the paddock and increase moisture for the cropping season ahead.
