No-till on the Plains Brazil Farm Tour - March 2010

Wednesday, 17MAR 2010

• 10.00 Visit at Emprapa WHEAT- the governmental institute of wheat research - Emphasis on crop rotation and cover crops

• Lunch at Semeato – invitation by Semeato.

• 14.00 Visit at Semeato with Marcelo Rossato, Director of Semeato – Industry manufacturing Agricultural Equipment specialized in No-Tilling,

• Overnight in Ijui -  Hotel Jardim Europa

• Today we visited the Embrapa (federal Ag research) wheat research station just outside of Passo Fundo.  This is where our friend Dirceau Gasson worked as a researcher for 21 years.  Wheat is not a major crop in Brazil – only a fraction of the corn or soybean acres.  The major barriers to Brazilian wheat production are too much  rain in the south which leads to diseases and harvest problems, too little rain in the Cerrado region (Matto Grossa) during the winter, and very low profitability for the crop.  The national average for wheat yields is about 32 bu/acre with some of the best farmers raising 60-75 bu/acre wheat.  Embrapa wheat has released 111 wheat varieties since 1974 and is the major provider of wheat genetics for the country.  As mentioned earlier, diseases are a major obstacles for wheat production in this warm, wet, and humid environment and breeding disease resistance into varieties is the major task for Embrapa Wheat.  Many of their wheat disease are familiar to us:  leaf rust, head scab, mildews, blotch, tan spot, viruses, soil borne mosaic.  A disease that we probably have not seen is Head Blast – a fungal disease similar to head scab but developed when the temperature during flowering is 70 – 80 degrees F and moist conditions are present.  Head Blast can reduce yields 60%-90% in a very short time.  As of right now there are no fungicides or crop rotations that seem to be effective as the fungal spores are carried in the air.  As if these diseases were not challenging enough, very acid soils and preharvest sprouting are also major issues to contend with.  To meet these challenges, Embrapa Wheat has 48 researchers and 160 support staff at the Passo Fundo campus doing ALL of their wheat breeding and research in a continuous no-till system.  They know that almost all of the  wheat will be growing in a no-till system so they have committed to do the research in the same way.  We also had a presentation on integrating pastures and cropping in a no-till system.  Basically they are doing research here at Embrapa on a system where land would be in permanent pasture for 4 years and then rotated go crop production for 3 years.  They are using perennials such as alfalfa, clovers and Bermuda grass in the pastures with an over seeding of annual rye grass in the winter.  These pastures are much more productive (around 2.2 lbs ADG) then the native pastures plus the legumes in the system are building up the soil for the period of crop production.  A very interesting concept and system and one that might fit some of our operations if we can find the right perennials to use.

  The afternoon found us at the Semeato manufacturing plant.  Semeato is a family owned company that manufactures only no-till seeding equipment and has the largest market share of any Brazilian seeder company..  After a very nice lunch, we were given a tour of the manufacturing facility (1 of the 3 in Brazil) by Marcello, the Vice-President of Semeato.  We were all impressed with the quality of the manufacturing process and how heavily built their planters and drills are.  We judged them to be as well built as any John Deere or Case IH seeders that we have seen.  They may not have the level of electronics and technology that we are used to but there was nothing wrong with their designs and the quality of manufacturing.  They have expanded their sales to Europe and other areas but have not made plans to try to penetrate the US market due to financial and logistical constraints.  We may not see Semeato seeders in the US but it was very refreshing to spend time with a company totally committed to the no-till system and doing extensive research in making no-till seeders better and more effective.

  Embrapa wheat researcher showing us the genetic parent stick material they use in their wheat breeding programs.	Tom and Doug look on with envy at the huge heads of wheat - note:  this is what Embrapa is working towards - this is not a variety they are  planting.	A picture of the devastating disease head blast as discussed ABOVE.	A nice flow chart showing the integration of crops and livestock.  Notice the interactions of chemical, physical and biological functions on crop yield
  Marcello showing us the Semeato factory.	Doug Palen modeling the cool hats that we received as gifts from Semeato.	A Semeato planter unit.  Almost every planter we have seen is similar in design to this.  Dry fertilizer is put down with the knife shank - they also say it is needed to help break up compaction that they get in their wet clay soils.  Also notice that the gauge wheels are behind and away from the double disk openers.  This is to allow them to plant when their clay soils are wet and sticky.  They acknowledge this is not ideal and that they are giving up some performance and precision in the seeding and emergence but they are willing to trade that for the ability to plant earlier.  The joys of having 80-90 inches of rain per year!
  The food I ate today - not including breakfast!  The last three were all from tonight's meal at the hotel restaurant.  I told someone that I have eaten twice as much as I should have - but only half as much as I wanted!

Thursday, 18MAR 2010

• 10.00 Visit at Fundacep – a private farming research enterprise raising corn, soy and wheat varieties of highest quality, lunch at Fundacep

• 16.00 leaving from Fundacep direction Porto Alegre

• Overnight in Porto Alegre -  Hotel Regent Harbour in the Citycenter

Today was our last day for touring in Brazil - then we head home.  We visited FUNDECEP - a farmer's Cooperative owned private research facility which does private research for over 161,000 farmers across the state of Rio Grande do Sul (the southern most state in Brazil).  The aim of the research is to improve the profitability of farmers and ranchers through practical research, extension service, and technical assistance.  They place a special emphasis on small farmers (less then 200 acres) as there are many of these farms in this state.  The 13 researchers here focus on variety development and improvement, soil fertility and conservation, and pest management and do all of their research within the no-till system (except for tillage plots for comparison purposes).  They are showing farmers that just no-tilling is not enough - the complete system depends on these three factors:  direct planting, diverse crop rotation, green manure cover crop.  They have proved the importance of this in their 25 years of long term crop rotation plots.  They have evaluated the following rotations:  soybean - wheat  (2.9 ton dry matter/acre/year), soybean-wheat-cover crop (3.6 ton dry matter/acre/year) and soybean-corn-wheat-cover crop (4.9 ton dry matter/acre/year).  They have also shown that soybean yields are up to 25% better when following corn rather than in a simple soybean-wheat rotation.  They also have research to show that no-till soybeans yield 15% more than conventional till, while corn and wheat show an increase of 25%.  They are quick to report that a crop rotation and cover crops are just as important (if not more important) then doing no-till planting - I believe this is a very important message for .   The researchers explained it this way:  More Residue = More Organic Matter = Higher Productivity = More Residue    This circle keeps repeating itself as long as adequate residue is maintained within the system - and this is only possible with crop rotations including corn and using green manure cover crops (they use black oats, oilseed radish, vetch and grasses).   We also had a presentation on weed management in no-till and the researchers explained how the weed pressure has changed in their area since the introduction of RR soybeans.  They have several resistant weed problems, including ipomea (looks similar wild buckwheat), ryegrass, and conyza (which looks to be marestail).  I guess we are not the only ones fighting weed resistance issues.  Their research has shown that the most effective tool in managing weed resistance is diverse crop rotation and use of green manure cover crops - using these techniques can reduce weed pressure up to 80% before herbicide use.  With the resistant conzea (marestail), just 4 plants per square meter will reduce yields by 10%, so weed management is very important.