DATE:     12/08/98
CONTACT:  Dr. Jim Palmer, (864) 656-3519
          Dr. Jim Frederick, (843) 662-3526
          Mr. Woody Green, (843) 453-5232
          Dr. Jeff Novak, (843) 662-3526
          Mr. Toby Boring, (843) 662-3526
          Mr. David Gunter, (843) 393-0484
WRITER:   Tom Lollis, (803) 284-3343

Clemson Agroecology Program Seeks
Higher Profits and Cleaner Water

     FLORENCE -- South Carolina farmers will be able to put more
money in their pockets and less soil, chemicals and nutrients in
the water if they adopt cropping systems being developed under
the Agroecology Program (AP) at Clemson University's Pee Dee
Research and Education Center.
     "High costs, low prices and weather-influenced low yields
this year have all called attention to the fact that four of our
major crops -- cotton, soybeans, wheat and corn -- have been put
in jeopardy in terms of profitability," said Jim Palmer, Clemson
Extension soybean specialist and AP team leader for outreach.
     "Those four crops are grown on a million and a half acres in
this state, 90 percent of which are 50 miles either side of
Interstate 95," he said. "The watersheds in this part of the
Coastal Plain are important to the state's tourism industry along
the coast. 
     "Our farmers need systems that will increase yields, lower
costs of production and improve the environmental compatibility
of these crops," he said. 
     The five-year project -- funded in part by the Agrisystems
Productivity and Profitability legislative initiative, the
university's Endowment for Agroecology Research, and several
competitive and commodity grants -- is in its second year.
Sixteen Clemson University scientists from Extension, teaching
and the S.C. Agriculture and Forestry Research System and three
from USDA's Agricultural Research System at Florence are blending
new technologies, new cropping systems and proven planting
practices. 
     Conservation tillage, narrow row planting systems, winged
deep tillage implements that do a better job of breaking up the
subsoil, transgenic crop varieties, precision farming and better
pest management practices are all part of the AP package. Don
Manley, Extension entomologist, is looking at fire ant
populations in no-till situations and Gloria McCutcheon, research
entomologist, is assessing the impact of beneficial insects in
cotton and soybeans.
     Clemson tried to get farmers interested in no-till practices
more than two decades ago, according to Jim Frederick, Extension
crop physiologist and AP team leader for research.
     "We didn't have the good equipment we have now, and in a lot
of cases farmers were losing yields by going to conservation
tillage," he said. "Planting through crop residue was difficult.
We didn't have the herbicides we have now, and weed control was 
inadequate."
     Frederick said newer no-till drills have solved many of the
planting problems, and winged deep tillage implements like
Terramax and Paratill are better at breaking Coastal Plain hard
pans than the traditional chisel plow and in-row subsoilers. The
new subsoilers feature winged shanks which break the clay layer
in a horizontal pattern with a lifting and shattering motion.
They are growing in popularity.
     "Sales have really picked up in the last two years in South
Carolina," said Andy Anderson, marketing manager for Agco, which
sells Paratill. Chuck Bellew, sales manager for Worksaver Inc.,
which sells the Terramax, echoed that message.
     "We started selling it in 1995, and sales went crazy in
1997," said Bellew, who credits work done by Clemson agricultural
engineer Ahmad Khalilian at Edisto Research and Education Center
with helping popularize the new tools.
     Frederick said farmers are rapidly changing over to the
types of practices used in the AP project. He said a little over
half the beans in the state are now drilled in 7.5-inch rows,
compared to none four years ago.
     One farmer who has taken a keen interest in new technologies
is Woody Green of Greenfarms in Sumter County. Green is a member
of the AP advisory panel. His farm is all no-till on grains. He
uses state-of-the-art deep tillage to combat subsoil compaction, 
yield monitors on his combines, subsurface fertilizer placement
in corn and is getting up to speed on integrated pest management
(IPM).
     "We use less labor, have reduced our environmental impact,
improved the soil structure, improved our crops' ability to
withstand drought and are more able to spot problem areas," Green
said. He uses Global Positioning System satellites and
geographical informational system software to map out yield
variations in his fields.
     He believes it is important to improve the public's
understanding of agriculture.
     "If ideas in the AP are implemented by farmers, the general
public should be made aware that we have reduced agriculture's
impact on the environment through accurately placed, metered
applications of nutrients and crop protection materials," he
said.
     He said increasing urban growth will continue to bring into
focus the competition between agriculture and developers for land
resources.
     Palmer said that the AP was on display several times in
1998. In June an Innovative Cropping Systems Workshop and an
Agriculture in Harmony with the Environment field day reached
more than 160 county agents, agricultural business
representatives, USDA-ARS representatives, politicians and policy 
makers from organizations like Farm Bureau. A Sept. 17 cropping
systems field day drew 200 people.
     David Gunter, Extension agent in Darlington County, said
farmers like the fact that the AP uses large fields to compare
planting systems. 
     "Farmers can see something that looks like it's on a farm,"
he said.
     In one experiment the AP team split a 14-acre field to
compare traditional and new production systems using a crop
rotation typical for South Carolina.
     "We call the field sections the innovative side and the 1995
side. On the 1995 side we use practices common around the state
that year," Frederick said. "We burned off the wheat residue last
spring before planting soybeans in 30-inch rows." That side was
also disked, in-row subsoiled and cultivated.
     "On the innovative side we deep tilled with a Paratill and
planted Roundup Ready soybeans in 7.5 inch rows," he said. "We
made two trips through the field, but most farmers who are
drilling beans make just one pass with the planter hitched to the
deep tillage implement." Roundup was their only herbicide
treatment. The narrow row beans shaded out a lot of the weeds and
the Roundup eliminated most weeds that grew through the crop
canopy.
     At harvest in late October yields were low on both sides 
because of a dry summer -- 18-20 bushels. 
     "After final analysis, the innovative side will probably
show a higher profit because of lower costs, especially for weed
control and tillage," Palmer said.
     Frederick said the split field has been mapped on a 50-foot
grid pattern using GPS equipment. Agronomist Susan Wallace, team
leader for teaching, will analyze yields based on the different
soil types to see where innovative techniques work best.
     In a separate, eight-acre field 7.5-inch row soybeans
yielded 19 percent more than wide row beans.
     "We've seen a five bushel per acre increase in yields with
no-till, Paratill wheat versus conventional wheat, and the
narrow-row/no-till concept has shown a potential for increasing
corn yields, based on two years of research," Palmer said. No-till
corn planted on 15-inch rows was 36 bushels per acre better
than 30-inch corn planted on disked soil in 1997, and 27 bushels
per acre better in 1998.
     Phil Bauer, USDA-ARS agronomist, said ultra narrow-row
cotton (less than 10 inches) shows lots of promise on marginal
land, which produced 900 pounds of lint in one test compared to
400-600 pounds in 30-inch rows.
     "In previous soybean studies prior to the AP we have found
that in seasons with good weather the narrow row/no till
combination is of great value, in normal years of good value, and 
in not-so-good years you get about the same yields as
conventionally planted crops," Frederick said. "On deep sands in
bad years yields will be poor no matter what you do."
     However, Palmer hopes in the long run to see improvements
even in sandier soils.
     "It may take 10-15 years to really get the full benefit. If
we can raise the percentage of organic matter in our soils, we
hope yields will not be as susceptible to influence by drought or
excess moisture," he said.
     "With no-till the old crop residues prevent the soil surface
from crusting, and you get more penetration of water during heavy
rains," Frederick explained. "Subsoiling, especially with the new
deep tillage equipment, allows more of that water to percolate
downward."
                             END