re: long term croppping systems

Willie Lockeretz (WLockeretz@infonet.tufts.edu)
Thu, 28 Mar 96 12:18:59 EST

A very interesting long-term farming system comparison not mentioned so far
is being done at University of Wisconsin. It is called the "Wisconsin
Integrated Cropping Systems Trial", and was started in 1989. It is expected
to run at least 12 years, and involves 6 production systems and two
locations; some systems involve livestock, others are cash grains. The
researchers paid unusually careful attention to the experimental design; for
example, before the treatments were begun, they had a "uniformity year" in
which all the plots were in corn, and there was considerable analysis of the
heterogeneity of the experimental area to choose the best size, shape and
number of replicates.

This work (which is still in progress, of course), was written up in the
article "The Wisconsin integrated cropping systems trial: Combining
agroecology with production agronomy", by J.L. Posner, M.D. Casler, and J.O.
Baldock; American Journal of Alternative Agriculture 10(3):98-107 (1995).

Another study, begun in Virginia in 1988, was already mentioned by a previous
respondent. Besides the report mentioned, a possibly more accessible write-up
is "Whole farm systems research: An integrated crop and livestock systems
comparison study," by J. Luna, V. Allen, J. Fontenot, and others; American
Journal of Alternative Agriculture 9(1-2):57-63 (1994).

Finally, reluctant as I am to admit it, worthwhile research in this area is
(occasionally) published elsewhere than AJAA. The mother of all long-term
studies of "alternative" (specifically organic) systems is the famous
Haughley experiment in England. I don't have a ready reference, but no doubt
you can get information on it from its sponsors: Soil Association, 86 Colston
St., Bristol BS1 5BB, Great Britain; soilassoc@gn.apc.org.

William Lockeretz
(Editor, AJAA)