Written by
Mr. Bronc Finch, PhD. Student, Precision Nutrient Management. 
Dr. Brian Arnall, Precision Nutrient Management Extension Specialist. 
In cooperation with Dr. James Rogers, Noble Research Institute. 

With the amount of wheat acreage in Oklahoma being utilized for grazing cattle, and much of that land grazed completely instead of harvested for grain, many questions have arose regarding the management of grazed cropland. A major question in the management of a graze-out wheat crop pertains to fertilizer management strategies. A study developed in co-operation with the Noble Research Institute is attempting to answer these questions among others. In 2019 the trial was established at three locations: near Lake Carl Blackwell in Stillwater, OSU South Central Research Station in Chickasha, and Noble Research Dupy farm in Gene Aurty, Oklahoma. Each of these three sites were setup with three nitrogen (N) treatments in Gallagher winter wheat, with 2 pre-plant applications of 60 and 120 pounds per acre, and a 60 pound pre-plant and 60 pound top-dress application. Grazing simulation harvests were taken at two times with the top-dress N being applied after regrowth was noticed following the winter season. The Dupy location was planted late and therefore only had a single harvest at the end of the season. Rising plate meter measurement were collected at feekes 7.5 and represented in the graphs below as Mid-season. The Chickasha location revealed unexpectedly high residual soil N levels, which resulted in no differences in dry matter biomass for the first harvest, which was delayed until early march due to excessive rains. The second harvest at Chickasha did show treatment differences with a 0.4 ton difference between the 60 and 120 lbs preplant N rates and increase of 0.8 ton increase over the 120 lb pre-plant when the additional 60 lbs of N was delayed. LCB had a timely first harvest in December resulting in the 120 lb N application outperforming the 60lb N applications by ≥0.33 tons. The second harvest further showed how the split application of N proves beneficial for biomass production. As the split application increased yields by 1.7 and 2.6 tons over the 120 lb and 60 lb preplant applications, respectively. The Dupy location revealed no significant difference in dry matter biomass yield between N treatments at the time of the rising plate meter measurements or for the final cutting.

Figure 1. Dry matter harvest results for each of the harvest dates from the graze out wheat trials from the Chickasha, Lake Carl Blackwell, and Dupy locations for three fertilizer treatments. 60: 60 lbs of nitrogen applied preplant, 120: 120 lbs of nitrogen applied preplant, 60/60: Split application 60 lbs of nitrogen preplant and 60 lbs applied top-dress. Dupy only had one harvest date, the Mid-season yield is estimated via rise-plate measurements taken at Feekes 7.5.

The Chickasha and Lake Carl Blackwell (LCB) locations produced an increase in total yield with both the increase of applied N and the split application of N. The 60 lb increase in applied N at preplant, 60 lbs vs 120 lbs, produced a 0.7 and 1.2 ton increase in total dry matter harvested at Chickasha and LCB, respectively. As expected an increase in N increased the yield of wheat biomass for grazing production. The top-dress application, which was made as a late season post Feekes 6 (hollow stem), produced more biomass for graze-out wheat production. The split application of 60 lbs of N preplant and 60 lbs of N top-dress increased dry matter by .8 and 1.3 tons over 120 lbs applied preplant at Chickasha and LCB, respectively. Chickasha yielded higher biomass production than the LCB location due to increased residual N.

Figure 2. Total dry matter harvest results for the graze out wheat trials from the Chickasha, Lake Carl Blackwell (LCB), and Dupy locations for three fertilizer treatments. 60: 60 lbs of nitrogen applied preplant, 120: 120 lbs of nitrogen applied preplant, 60/60: Split application 60 lbs of nitrogen preplant and 60 lbs applied top-dress.

For the following discussion remember that protein is determined by N concentration, so that a increase in N uptake is the same as an increase in protein. Evaluation of the N uptake (% N in the biomass x amount of biomass harvested) over the season revealed treatment effects at all locations, which was not seen from biomass yield. Chickasha and LCB revealed a 20% or greater increase in N uptake with the 120 lb application over the 60 lb application of N at pre-plant. The late season top-dress application yielded a 3, 27, and 27 percent increase in uptake for Chickasha, LCB, and Dupy locations, respectively, over the 120 lb pre-plant application. Although, these results are expected from these results, there are a few things we did not expect. The 120 lb N application did not increase the N uptake above that of the 60 lb application. However, the split application of N resulted in an additional >40 lbs uptake, aka increased protein.

Figure 3. Total nitrogen uptake results for the graze out wheat trials from the Chickasha, Lake Carl Blackwell, and Dupy locations for three fertilizer treatments. 60: 60 lbs of nitrogen applied preplant, 120: 120 lbs of nitrogen applied preplant, 60/60: Split application 60 lbs of nitrogen preplant and 60 lbs applied top-dress.

This study also includes summer forages with and without additional fertilizer. The study will be continued for multiple years on the same locations to evaluate the impact of management on production and soil characteristics.  But one surprising note has already been made, in all three locations a greatly delay top-dress still increased N-uptake. In two location it significantly increase yield and protein. This data is falling in line with the grain only data (How late can you wait) showing that an application of N at Feekes 6 (Hollow stem) and even shortly after can provide positive return on investments.

For any questions for comments please contact
Brian Arnall
b.arnall@okstate.edu
405-744-1722