Grain, Oil, and Specialty Field-Crop Production

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Grain, Oil, and Specialty Field-Crop Production

• by
• Larry Stine
• Estherville Lincoln Central High School

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Competencies

• define important terms used in crop production
• identify major crops grown for grain, oil, and
  special purposes
• classify field crops according to use and thermo
  requirements
• describe how to select field crops, varieties,
  and seed

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Competencies

• prepare proper seedbeds for grain, oil, and
  specialty crops
• plant field crops
• describe current irrigation practices for field
  crops to meet their water needs
• control pests in field crops
• harvest and store field crops

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Terms to Know

• Field Crops
• Grain Crops
• Malting
• Forage
• Cover Crops
• Green Manure Crops
• Oilseed Crops

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Terms to Know

• Linen
• Linseed Oil
• Ginning
• Seed Pieces
• Cash Crop
• Thermo
• Cereal Crops

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Terms to Know

• Seed Legume Crops
• Root Crops
• Sugar Crops
• Tuber Crops
• Stimulant Crops
• Conventional Tillage
• No-till

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Term to Know

• Row Crop Planters
• Drill Planters
• Broadcast Planters
• Irrigation
• Sprinklers
• Surface Irrigation
• Mechanical Pest Control

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Terms to Know

• Cultural Control
• Biological Control
• Genetic Control
• Chemical Control
• Threshing

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History of Crop Production

• Began about 10,000 years ago
• Changed early humans from hunters to farmers
• Observed what animals were eating
• Trial and error and thousands of years of
  selection

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In the United States

• Occupies more than 450 million acres
• Acreage represents about 20 of the U.S.
• About 2 of American workers are in production
  agriculture
• 11 of personal income in U.S. spent on food
• Helps to maintain balance of trade

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Major Field Crops in the United States

• Seven major grain crops in the United States
• Are grasses grown for their edible seeds
• Major Grain Crops
• Corn Oats
• Wheat Rye
• Barley Rice
• Grain Sorghum

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Corn

• Most important field crop in the U.S.
• 35-40 of total production from midwest
• 50 of corn produced in the world
• Origin in Central America

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Corn

• Less than 10 of U.S. production is for human
  consumption
• Major classifications
• Dent corn
• Flint corn
• Popcorn
• Sweet corn
• Flour or soft corn
• Pod corn

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Wheat

• Most important grain crop in the world
• 2nd to corn in U.S.
• Primarily for human consumption
• Ground into flour
• bread
• cakes
• cereal
• macaroni/noodles

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Wheat

• Types of Wheat
• Common Poulard
• Durum Polish
• Club Emmer
• Spelt
• Classes of Common Wheat
• Soft red winter Hard red winter
• Hard red spring White

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Barley

• Ranks fifth among grain crops in U.S.
• Most is used in livestock feed
• Same feed value as corn
• Production for malting is also important
  

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Oats

• Fourth in acres produced in the United States
• Value is well documented for livestock
• Adding bulk to the diet
• Adding protein to the diet
• 5 is made into oatmeal and cookies
• Used in production of plastics, pesticides, and
  preservatives
• Important in paper and brewing industries

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Rye

• Least economically important grain crop
• 25-35 of rye acreage used for grain
• Remainder used for forage
• Cover crop
• Green manure crop
• Rye grown for grain is used for livestock feed,
  flour, whiskey alcohol production

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Rice

• Major grain crop grown for food for over half the
  people in the world
• Only commercially grown grain crop that can grow
  and thrive in standing water
• Types grown in U.S.
• Short grain
• Medium grain
• Long grain
• Majority used for human consumption

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Sorghum

• In U.S. used primarily for livestock feed
• About equal to corn in food value
• Other uses include
• Forage
• Manufacture of syrup or sugar
• Making of brooms
• Third most important U.S. grain crop

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Sorghum

• Types of sorghum
• Grain
• Forage
• Syrup
• Grass
• Broomcorn

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Oilseed Crops

• Crops grown for the production of oil from their
  seeds
• Growing in importance each year
• Important crops are
• Soybeans Safflower
• Peanuts Flax
• Corn Sunflower
• Cottonseed

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Soybeans

• 60 million acres in U.S.
• Average yield 34 bu/acre
• Gross 11 billion/year
• Oil and grain products are major uses
• Meal fed to livestock
• Also used for hay, pasture, and other forage
• 100s of other uses

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Peanuts

• Actually a pea and not a nut
• Grown primarily in the South
• One ton will yield
• 500 lbs. oil
• 800 lbs. meal
• 700 lbs. shell
• Meal used for livestock feed and in human diets
• Other foods include peanut butter and dry roasted
  peanuts

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Safflower

• Production for oil occurs mainly in California
• Plants grow 2 to 5 feet high with heads
  resembling Canadian thistles
• 25-35 percent oil
• Used in production of paint and other industrial
  products
• Used for cooking oil and low cholesterol diets

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Flax

• Originally, the production was for fiber
• Fibers were used to produce linen
• Oil is called linseed oil
• Important raw product in many types of paint
• 100s of uses in industry
• Meal is excellent source of protein for animal
  feeds

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Sunflowers

• Production of oil-type important in recent years
• 90 of production oil-type
• 49-53 oil
• Meal has 14-19 protein
• Meal used for livestock feed
• Oil used for margarine and cooking oil
• Oil can substitute for diesel fuel in tractors

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Specialty Crops

• Include
• Fiber Crops
• Sugar Crops
• Stimulant Crops
• Examples include
• Cotton
• Sugar beets
• Sugarcane
• Tobacco

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Cotton

• Originated in Central and South America
• Important crop in South since colonial times
• Need warm temperatures and a long growing season
• Can produce up to three crops per year under
  irrigation

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Cotton

• Over 15 million bales of cotton produced in U.S.
  per year
• 9 million bales used in textile industry, rest is
  exported
• Removing seed from cotton is called ginning
• Seed is processed to remove the oil which
  contributes to vegetable oil needs
• Meal is used for animal feed

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Sugar Beets

• Accounts for about 35 of the refined sugar
  produced in the U.S.
• Produces a thick, fleshy storage root
• Center of production is the western states and
  the upper Midwest

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Sugar Cane

• Accounts for 65 of the sugar refined in the U.S.
• Crop is a grass grown from sections of stalk
  called seed pieces
• Takes about 2 years to reach harvesting stage in
  Hawaii
• Takes 7 months until harvest in the southern
  states
• Can harvest several times before replanting

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Tobacco

• Original North American product used by Native
  Americans
• Produced as a cash crop
• Production dropped in the 1980s and increased
  again in the 1990s
• Requires large amounts of labor and is adapted to
  small farming operations
• Warm temperatures and plenty of rainfall are
  required for optimum production

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Classification of Field Crops

• Three ways of classifying field crops
• Use
• Thermo requirements
• Life span
• Classification by use
• Cereal crops-grown for their edible seeds
• Seed legume crops-nitrogen-fixing crops that
  produce edible seeds
• Root crops-grown for their thick, fleshy
  storage roots

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Classification of Field Crops

• Forage crops-grown for hay, silage, or
  pastures for livestock feed
• Sugar crops-grown for their ability to store
  sugars in their stems or roots
• Oil crops-produced for the oil content of their
  seeds
• Tuber crops-grown for their thickened,
  underground storage stems
• Stimulant crops-grown for their ability to
  stimulate the sense of the user

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Classification of Field Crops

• Thermo classifications
• Warm season
• Cool season
• Warm season crops must have warm temperatures in
  order to live and grow
• Cool season crops often need a period of cool
  weather in order to attain maximum production

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Classification of Field Crops

• Classification by life span
• Annual
• Biennial
• Perennial
• Factors to consider for the selection of field
  crops
• 1. Crops that will grow and produce the
  desired yields under the type of climate
  available.
• 2. Crops that are adapted to the type of soil
  available.

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Classification of Field Crops

• 3. Demand on market available for the crop to
  be produced.
• 4. Labor requirements and availability of
  labor for the crop.
• 5. Machinery and equipment necessary to grow
  the crop.
• 6. Availability of enough land to justify
  production of the crop.
• 7. Pest-control problems.
• 8. Expected yields.
• 9. Anticipated production costs.

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Seedbed Preparation

• Purpose is to provide conditions favorable for
  germination and growth
• Eliminating competition from weeds and crop
  residues is a consideration

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Seedbed Preparation

• Can increase availability of soil nutrients
• Should not be overworked
• Fineness of seedbed is dependent on size of seed
• Should contain enough fertility to encourage
  germination and growth
• Control and elimination of weeds, insects, and
  diseases is an important consideration

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Seedbed Preparation

• Three categories of tillage preparation
• Conventional tillage-land is plowed with a
  moldboard plow
• Minimum tillage-seedbed is prepared only
  enough so that the seed can make contact with
  the soil and germinate
• No-till-planting seeds directly into the
  residue of the previous crop

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Planting Field Crops

• Three general types of planters
• Row crop planters-plant seeds in precise rows
  with even spacing within the rows
• Drill planters-plant seeds in narrow rows at
  high population rates
• Broadcast planters-scatter the seed in a random
  pattern on top of the seedbed

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Planting Field Crops

• Other considerations include
• Date to plant
• Germination rate of seeds
• Uniformity of seed
• Weather conditions
• Insect and disease control problems

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Meeting Water Needs of Crops

• Ideally 1/2 of pore space is filled with water
• About 1/2 of the water in the pore spaces are
  available for plant use
• Factors affecting water availability include
• Type of soil
• Natural rainfall
• Water-table levels
• Prevailing winds

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Meeting Water Needs of Crops

• Irrigation may be the answer to obtaining
  profitable yields
• Irrigation has been practiced for over 5,000
  years
• Egyptians used water from the Nile River for
  irrigation
• Chinese and Native Americans used irrigation

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Meeting Water Needs of Crops

• Major methods of supplying irrigation water to
  crops
• Sprinklers-spray water through the air, much
  like rainfall
• Surface irrigation-water gets to the crop by
  gravity, flowing over the surface of the soil
  or in ditches or furrows
• Subsurface irrigation-supplies water to the
  roots of crops underground

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Pest Control in Field Crops

• Control of pests in field crops often determines
  profits
• Pests include
• Diseases
• Weeds
• Insects
• Animals
• Economic losses total billions of dollars each
  year

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Pest Control in Field Crops

• Three main categories of losses
• Reduced yields
• Reduced quality
• Spoilage
• Methods of controlling pests in field crops
• Mechanical pest control Genetic control
• Cultural pest control Chemical control
• Biological pest control

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Mechanical Pest Control

• Anything that affects the environment of the pest
  or the pest itself
• Cultivation is the normal mechanical control of
  weeds
• Other types include
• Pulling or mowing weeds
• Use of screens, barriers, traps, and electricity

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Cultural Control

• Adapting farming practices to control pests
• Includes
• Timing farming operations to eliminate pests
• Rotating crops
• Planting resistant varieties
• Planting trap crops that are more attractive to
  insects than is the primary crop

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Biological Control

• Involves the use of predators or diseases as the
  control mechanisms
• Examples
• Release of sterile male insects
• Uses of baits and repellents
• Important that the control be specific to the
  intended pest

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Genetic Control

• Development of varieties of crops that are
  resistant to pests
• May involve making the crop less attractive to
  pest because of
• Taste
• Shape
• Blooming time

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Chemical Control

• Involves the use of pesticides to control pests
• Excellent management practices must be exercised
• Care in pest identification and selection of the
  chemical are important
• Dosage, runoff, and pesticide residues need to be
  monitored

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Harvesting and Storing Field Crops

• Harvesting at proper stage of maturity is a key
  to maximizing profits
• Culmination of a growing season of work and
  anticipation of the rewards of a job well done

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Harvesting and Storing Field Crops

• Development of mechanical harvesting equipment
• Primary harvesting machine is the combine which
  performs the tasks of
• Cutting the crop
• Threshing the crop
• Separating crop from debris
• Cleaning the crop

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Harvesting and Storing Field Crops

• Threats to quality of stored crops include
• Heat
• Moisture
• Fungi
• Insects
• Rodents
• Production of field crops generates more income
  for American agriculturists than any other
  production enterprise