UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Conserving crop residue is important in reducing topsoil erosion and nutrient runoff, and the latest tools and techniques for surface residue conservation will be on display at special tillage demonstrations that will be held at 11:30 a.m. daily at Penn State's 2003 Ag Progress Days, Aug. 19-21. The event takes place at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs, nine miles southwest of State College on Pa. Route 45.

Ron Hoover, senior project associate in crop and soil sciences, explains that crop residue -- what farmers call 'trash' -- is important in reducing water-induced soil erosion.

"Raindrops that fall directly onto bare soil break the larger soil aggregates into smaller particles that are more easily transported in runoff," Hoover says. "Costly fertilizer nutrients also are lost with the topsoil. So manufacturers have responded with the increasingly popular one-pass tools that we will be demonstrating.

"Most implements will perform some medium to deep tillage, followed by a gang of discs or a field cultivator to reduce clods, and finish with a field leveling attachment. Other tools simply will level the surface of the field with little soil penetration." Conservation tillage has been gaining in popularity in recent decades, Hoover says, but experts are concerned that unnecessary tillage continues. With each pass of most tillage implements, less plant residue remains on the surface.

"With some of the newer, one-pass tillage tools available today, many of the follow-up passes may be unnecessary," he notes. "In addition to reducing much-needed surface residue, these additional operations cost producers in the form of extra time, fuel and wear on equipment."

Hoover says many of the planters available to farmers in the past decade are more than able to place seed properly into a less than perfectly smooth field. "Our growers spend a lot of money on new state-of-the-art planters," he says. "If they aren't comfortable with no-till, they at least need to cut back on tillage and let the planter do more of the work."

The demonstration each day will begin with a short discussion led by Sjoerd Duiker, assistant professor of soil management, followed with comments from implement manufacturers' representatives of the tillage implements. Last year's deep-tillage demonstrations drew more than 1,000 spectators, and Hoover expects interest in this year's demonstration to be at least as great.

Other field machinery demonstrations will feature hay mowing, hay rakes and tedders, baling, bale handling and manure application to reduce odor and preserve residue cover.

Ag Progress Days hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 19; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Aug. 20; and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 21. Admission and parking are free. For more information, call (800) PSU-1010 toll-free through August 21 or visit the Ag Progress Days Web site at http://apd.cas.psu.edu.

###

EDITORS: Contact Ron Hoover at 814-865-6652 or rjh7@psu.edu (e-mail).

Contact:

Gary Abdullah gxa2@psu.edu 814-863-2708 814-863-9877 fax #209