Effect of a Long-Term Integrated Multi-Crop Rotation and Cattle Grazing on No-Till Hard Red Spring Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Production, Soil Health, and Economics

Integrated crop grazing systems can improve farm profitability due to enterprise complementarity. Utilizing the supply of N from legumes, livestock manure, and plant residues will result in improving grain yield and quality. A long-term 12-year integrated systems study evaluated continuous spring wheat (HRSW-CTRL) with spring wheat (HRSW-ROT) grown in a five-crop rotation: (1) spring wheat, (2) seven-species cover crop, (3) forage corn, (4) field pea/forage barley mix, and (5) sunflower. Yearling beef cattle steers grazed the field pea/forage barley mix, unharvested corn, and a seven-species cover crop. Spring wheat was marketed as a cash crop. Contrary to expectations, HRSW-ROT did not significantly increase grain yield or improve quality over HRSW-CTRL. Improved soil fertility was observed in the HRSW-ROT plots throughout the study relative to SOM, N, P, and K. However, the rotation with grazing management significantly reduced input costs but resulted in negligible gross and net returns over the 12-year period. Year-to-year weather variability was the cause of the differences between the two production management methods.