Minnesota Science
Vol. 44, No. 3
Sustainable Agriculture Update: First Plots In
by Larry Etkin
"Sustainable agriculture" is the future of all agriculture because management practices that erode the topsoil, contaminate the environment, or remove the profit from farming, can't sustain our system of agriculture in the long term. So says Kent Crookston, director of the University of Minnesota sustainable agriculture working group.
A first set of research plots went in this spring on the Koch Farm site at the Southwest Experiment Station, Lamberton. It's the beginning of research examining methods for and results from reduced use of chemicals and altered crop management practices. It's part of 80 acres planted to variable input crop management studies.
With a corn-soybean-oats-alfalfa rotation, research plots will compare noinput, commercial, organic and low input sustainable managements. Plantings for next spring will begin comparing specific organic and low input techniques.
Just as roads make car transportation possible, these plantings create an infrastructure for current and future research on tilling practices, alternative crops, and differing rotations, says Lamberton station superintendent Wally Nelson.
Findings won't be available until research has been repeated over several years; but just having it under way is important, says agronomist Harlan Ford. Its presence at the experiment station gives legitimacy to low input and sustainable techniques. "If it accomplishes nothing else but getting farmers interested in reducing inputs, then the research is worthwhile," concludes Ford.