Reduced Tillage Better Option for Creeping Red Fescue

EDMONTON - Jan 14/04 - SNS -- Creeping red fescue growers will likely get better results with the crop by following a reduced tillage regime, suggests Nick Underwood, agronomist, Reduced Tillage LINKAGES, Grande Prairie.

"You will have heard of removing, or killing perennial grasses by using glyphosate instead of tillage. Not all grasses are created equal, and some are harder to remove than others," says Underwood.

"In the Peace region our favorite special crop is creeping red fescue, affectionately known as 'creeper'. We grow hundreds of thousands of acres of it and sometimes growers are well rewarded for their efforts. Sometimes they are not. But creeper is one of those grasses that is hard to remove through tillage. It can be killed by glyphosate but not easily, nor in all conditions."

Traditionally, a grower of creeping red fescue would have a year with low seed production, followed by one or two full production years. Then the creeping red fescue would become sod-bound and stop producing seed.

"At this point our traditional grower has to get out the mouldboard plough to do one of two things," explains Underwood. "He can either inverse the sod, followed by rolling and levelling operations. This will lead to one or two more production years of fescue seed. Or he can inverse the sod, followed by multiple passes with the disc, roller, cultivator and harrows. These latter operations enable the grower to grow a different crop, but often only after a full year of fallow with no revenue."

However, some producers are growing creeping red fescue without using a plough. Glyphosate can remove creeping red fescue when conditions are right in the fall. These conditions include: about six to eight inches of leaf re-growth after harvest; enough soil moisture that the fescue is actively growing; and no recent frost.

"These conditions usually exist in late August or the first half of September," notes Underwood. "Creeper has a waxy cuticle and very fine leaves, so I recommend spraying with two liters per acre of RoundUp Transorbr. That product has an effective surfactant so don't cut the rate."

Underwood points out that statistics from one direct seeder's farm in the Peace region in 2002-2003 really point out the time and money savings when sod seeding creeping red fescue. "Eighty hours were spent on ploughing, disking, heavy harrowing and rolling 140 acres of creeping fescue while only two hours were spent spraying 140 acres of a creeping red fescue sod area," notes Underwood. "As well as being faster to work, the sod area was about $34 per acre cheaper."

Although the cultivated area yielded four bushels per acre more than the sod area, the increased yield didn't make up for the revenue lost through cultivation itself. "At the end of the day, the gain from spraying versus cultivation worked out to $1.60 per acre, and it took about 78 hours less to sod-seed than cultivate," notes Underwood.

The farmer had a neighbor with Barton disc openers on his Flexicoil seed into the sprayed-out sod area. He was able to do all the cultivations on the 'traditional area' in the fall of 2002 because it was fairly dry. The Roundup Transorbr was very effective in killing the sod.

Underwood says it all comes down to time spent. "One can argue about the costs of ploughing and disking until the cows come home. Arguing about the time it takes only takes more time. Time is money and we all need more of both. But I think that a little more margin in fescue production wouldn't hurt, and there's a lot of time to be saved."

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