PULLMAN, Wash. — Learning from those who are succeeding is the concept behind an award-winning series of 16 free Pacific Northwest Extension publications on direct seed farming operations.
The Direct Seeding in the Inland Northwest series recently won the American Society of Agronomy’s Award of Excellence for publications. The award was presented at the annual ASA meeting in Charlotte, N.C. in late
October.
Roger Veseth, WSU/UI Extension conservation tillage specialist and one of five authors, said, “Many established direct-seed growers say one of the keys to their success was having other direct-seed growers share their experiences and knowledge with them as they developed their own system.
“This series of 16 case studies allows growers and agricultural support personnel to learn from growers experienced with direct seeding throughout the Inland Northwest.”
Each case study features a single farm operation and typically contains the following components:
- How the growers started direct seeding, and lessons learned
- Description of their current direct seed system including: crops and rotation, residue management, weed, disease and insect control, fertility management and fertilizer application, seeding strategies
- Description and evaluation of the drills they are using
- Primary benefits and challenges of direct seeding seen by the growers
- Advice for growers new to direct seeding
- Economic summary (when available).
Farms featured in this series are located across the range of rainfall zones in the Inland region of Washington, Idaho and Oregon. They utilize a variety of equipment and cropping systems.
More than 25,000 of the publications have been distributed so far. They can be ordered through your local Cooperative Extension office or directly from the extension publication offices in Idaho (208) 885-7982, Oregon (541) 737-2513 and Washington (800) 723-1763.
The publications are also available on the Internet (http://pnwsteep.wsu.edu) — click on Direct Seed Case Studies for viewing, printing or downloading the publications in PDF (Acrobat) format, just as they appear in the printed form.
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