**3. Climate, crops and regenerative agriculture, diversified cropping system**

#### **3.1 Climate**

The semi-arid region of the Northern Great Plains is known for wind, cold winters, and warm summers; however, relatively low humidity. Growing season (April – October) precipitation averages 311.9 mm. Maximum and minimum mean temperatures range from a high of 23.8 °C to a low of 8.5 °C [12].

#### **3.2 Crops and regenerative agriculture**

A wide range of crops are grown in the region for grain, oilseed, and forage including numerous varieties of, but are not limited to: cereal grains (spring wheat, winter wheat, corn, barley, oats, rye, flax, triticale, lentil, chickpea, grain sorghum, dry beans, dry pea), oilseeds (soybean, sunflower, canola, safflower, crambe), and forages (alfalfa, clover, millet, hairy vetch).

Alternative approaches to minimizing animal health issues focuses on methods whereby cattle are managed to spend upwards of 85% of their lives outside of feedlot confinement. Initially, pasture stocking rate for cows and calves that will be grazing a given range resource is determined. Secondly, the number of cow-calf stocking spaces that retained ownership yearlings will replace needs to be determined. For crop and livestock farms, an integrated diversified multi-crop rotation system can provide additional grazing without a large reduction in the ranch's cow-calf carrying capacity.

When designing the annual cropping system, complementary attributes were considered from the perspective of the following: minimum soil disturbance using no-till seeding and planting, suitability for cattle grazing, water conservation, crops that form associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), improving soil quality through soil nutrient cycling, including legume crops or mixes with a high percentage of legumes in the mix, crops that have high root mass, deep cycling crops, and crops that maintain a living root in the soil long after freezing conditions set in. More recently, coalescing these non-traditional practices and applying them to farming and ranching has become referred to as regenerative agriculture. This is not a term often heard around traditional farming circles. However, among holistic farmers and ranchers, regenerative agricultural practices focus on melding this wide range of practices together in ways that are good for the land and the people who farm the land. Soil is a living organism and must be managed carefully, because soil coupled with water, solar radiation, and microbial derived nutrient cycling sustains all plants and living creatures. Regenerative agriculture has a foundation in the five principles

*Perspective Chapter: Alternative Intensive Animal Farming Tactics That Minimize Negative… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108339*

of soil health: Soil Armor, Minimizing Soil Disturbance, Plant Diversity, Maintaining a Continual Live Root in the Soil as Long as Possible, and Livestock Integration [13].

The soil surface is fragile and subject to wind and water erosion as well as impact from insults such as hail and solar heat that kills soil surface microbes. Protection for soils comes from plant cover of pastures, farmed land with domestic no-till or reduced-till crop production and residues, cover crop mixes that help keep the land covered and provide forage for haying and grazing, and reduced weed infestation.

#### **3.3 Diversified cropping system**

Considering the wide array of crops that could be grown and demonstrate complementarity, the diversified multi-crop rotation consisted of spring wheat, dual winter and summer cover crop, forage corn, field pea-forage barley mix, and sunflower. Within these crops, cool- and warm-season grass and broadleaf crops are represented that are adapted to the semi-arid region. Crop characteristics associated with crops selected for inclusion in the diverse crop rotation are shown in **Table 1**. The characteristics listed include Crop Type (Cool- or Warm-season Grass and Broadleaf types), crop water use requirement (Low, Medium, High), Grain Crude Protein %, Residue C:N Ratio, Nitrogen Scavenging Ability, and whether the crop forms an association with Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi. Some excellent crops were excluded that did not meet the requirement for livestock grazing or did not form relationships with AMF. For example, canola is an excellent oilseed crop; however, the crop is not suitable for grazing and does not form a relationship with AMF. Nonetheless, within a wider rotation of six to seven crops canola and soybean would be logical crop rotation additions.

Cover crops were initially promoted by USDA/NRCS for purpose of controlling water and wind erosion prescribed by Practice Code: 340: Growing a crop of grass, small grain or legumes primarily for seasonal protection and soil improvement [14]. Ancient alternatives to fertilizers were the use of green manure crops that were used by farmers in Chinese, Greek, and Roman societies [15]. In the infancy of cover crop use the recommendation was that the crop would be seeded following a primary cash


#### **Table 1.**

*Multi-crop rotation crop characteristics.*

crop, which has not been very successful in the semi-arid regions. This is because dry soil conditions are common after a primary crop is harvested and germination is impeded reducing biomass production. Mixed-specie cover crops are gaining popularity among crop and livestock producers for their aid in not only controlling wind and water erosion, but also as full-season annual forage crops used for haying or grazing that provide for both above and below ground biomass. Cover crops provide numerous soil system services beyond protecting the soil surface from erosion. Soil system services also include increasing fertility from soil organic matter and subsequent nitrogen supplied from decaying roots and surface residue, symbiotic and asymbiotic nitrogen fixation, increased soil aggregation and decreased compaction, increased soil water infiltration through the use of tillage-type radish and turnips that create tunnels for soil water infiltration, weed control to some extent, grazing season extension, and protective cover for wildlife. To accomplish these many soil system services within the research investigation, the diverse crop rotation employed a dual winter and summer cover crop planting. The winter cover crop was seeded during the first two weeks of September each year and consisted of a winter triticale/ hairy vetch mix. The crop was harvested mid-June each year for hay. Following hay harvest, the fields were burned down with Glyphosate and seeded to a 7-way cover crop mix (**Table 2**) that was harvested with yearling beef cattle steers. Plant root diversity as well as plants that form association with AMF are important for inclusion in cover crop seed blends. Sunflower, oat, pea, and hairy vetch are crops with roots that develop associations with AMF. Whereas rape, cabbage, and turnip are included in the 7-way mix to provide diversity, nitrogen scavenging, and aid in reducing compaction; however, do not form AMF associations. Fifty percent of the crop species included in the cover crop blend were legumes. The importance of legumes in cover crop mixes cannot be over emphasized, because their nitrogen fixing characteristics provide a nitrogen source for the subsequent crop through microbial nutrient cycling.

The cropping system consisted of crops with small seed size (spring wheat, cover crop, pea, barley) that were seeded using a John Deere 1590 No-Till drill (row spacing: 19.1 cm) and crops with large seed size (corn and sunflower) that were planted using a John Deere 7000 No-Till planter (row spacing: 0.762 m) (Deere & Company, Moline, IL USA). Spring wheat was planted to achieve 3.09 million plants per ha and the corn and sunflower crops were planted to achieve plant populations of 7,692 plants per ha. The mixed crop of field pea (Arvika, var.) was seeded at 67.2 kg/ha and the forage barley (Stockford, var.;) was seeded at 44.8 kg/ha, i.e., 60.0% pea – 40% barley.


#### **Table 2.** *Seven-Way cover crop mix.*

*Perspective Chapter: Alternative Intensive Animal Farming Tactics That Minimize Negative… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108339*

The order in which crops occurred in the rotation was based on plant season of growth (cool- or warm-season), water use, and residue C:N ratio. Starting with spring wheat as the first crop in the rotation, the crop is rated as medium for water use and was followed by the multi-specie cover crop that contained a high level of legume plants with low C:N ratios. Under normal precipitation in the region the cover crop would be expected to breakdown due to microbial nutrient cycling making plant nutrients available to the subsequent corn crop. Corn is a warm-season grass crop and sunflower is a warm-season broadleaf crop, and both crops are rated as high water use crops; therefore, a cool-season mixed grass and broadleaf intercrop mix (field peaforage barley) suitable for grazing was placed between corn and sunflower, because both crops in the mix are rated as being low water use crops and the mix was 60% legume. The high concentration of legume in the crop mix with a low C:N ratio was expected to provide nitrogen and other nutrients for the following sunflower crop.
