An Oklahoma farmer is interseeding wheat in between his cotton rows prior to defoliation. See what he’s using and how he’s integrating it into his crop rotation and cattle operation.
Cotton harvest is on the horizon at Damron Farms near Delhi, Okla. But before defoliants are applied, Jake Damron’s interseeding wheat in between his dryland cotton rows with a 12-row implement.
This wheat is a second chance at production in a region experiencing frequent drought and higher temperatures. But depending on fall moisture, it also gives Damron options in his cow/calf operation. If it rains or grain prices remain low, he can graze the wheat with his momma cows and yearlings and possibly take a percentage of it to grain. If it’s dry, he’ll graze more than he’ll harvest.
This year, Damron’s interseeded wheat yielded 30 bushels-plus. “Last year, we didn’t have a very good cotton crop. We had all that fertilizer out and this year we got the rain, so we made really good row drill wheat.”
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High yields aren’t the goal. “I tell myself if we can make 20 to 25 bushels, we’re doing really good. This year, we made 30, 32, 35 bushels, so it was phenomenal. That doesn’t happen often.”
Last year, Damron also interseeded wheat into some failed irrigated cotton, where he had run out of water. “I went in there and row drilled it. I grazed it hard and then we watered it and made 65-bushel row drill wheat. It was phenomenal.”
Damron, who farms about 5,200 acres with his father Jack though they have separate operations, scales back on his fertilizer rates. “We put minimal fertilizer on our double crop. We’ve learned that if we put more fertilizer the wheat will burn up because it’s going to pick up everything our cotton did not.”
He drills 60 pounds per acre between his 40-inch cotton rows with a 40-foot seeder he and fellow farmer Spencer Smith, Elk City, built from the ground up at Smith’s 4 Ag Manufacturing. When Jake first started, he used a six-row bar he and his father built. Upgrading to a 12-row meant starting from scratch.
“It took us 15 weeks to build. There was at least a week over the 15 where we just stared at things, just sat there with a pencil and piece of paper. It was a lot of trial and error.”
The new drill has a 60-bushel box, which has sped up planting. “I’m doing 60 acres when I’m putting out 60 pounds. Our old one was a 20-bushel box, so I had to fill up every 20 acres.”
Now, he can sow about 25 acres per hour.
Once the wheat is planted, Jake defoliates with ETX and Boll Buster, to avoid burning the wheat. “ETX doesn’t hurt it. Plus, if you’ve got neighbors, it’s not going to hurt if something happens, like a whirlwind comes up or a dust storm and blows some over. It’s safer for me to run.”
Interseeding is a small part of a bigger rotation. The family has grown irrigated cotton since 2005. But when Jake added dryland cotton in 2013, his goal was to farm enough land to rotate, summer fallow and reduce plowing to once every three years.
He’s reached that goal, which helps him avoid planting cotton back-to-back. “Where we summer fallow is where we’ll make our best cotton,” Jake said.
His rotation looks like this:
- 2023 fall- plant wheat
- 2024 summer- harvest wheat, leave fallow
- 2025 spring- plant dryland cotton into the wheat stubble
- 2025 fall- interseed wheat in between cotton rows prior to defoliation
- 2025 winter/2026 spring- depending on moisture, graze interseeded wheat or take to grain
- 2026 fall- plow and plant wheat
Jake credits his rotation for preventing back-to-back wheat as well. “The year I go in and plow it, I break that chemical cycle from these resistant weeds,” which also results in a clean wheat crop that follows, something that is a priority at Damron Farms.
Cover crops
This year, he’s also using the interseeder to drill a multi-specie cover crop on about 30% of his summer fallowed ground. He plants 40 pounds to the acre of a wheat, radish, turnip and winter pea blend.
“I’ll run this interseeder twice. Last year, this field was summer fallowed, and I sowed the cover crop (last fall) and it came up beautifully. Then, I went in and sprayed it and killed it and planted my cotton in it, skip row because it’s a dry farm.”
He just finished interseeding that farm with wheat as well. “So, I’ve gone over it twice in one year, but a year apart. Next fall, I’ll plant it to strictly wheat.”
Challenges
Jake admits row drilling wheat comes with challenges. Sara Nicholson, his sister and the lead combine driver, concurred. “It never fails that we’re always planting cotton and cutting wheat at the same time,” Jake said.
“Or vice versa,” Nicholson added. “And then in the fall, what are we doing? We’re harvesting cotton and planting wheat,” Jake said. It requires a team effort.
2024 cotton production
While the Damrons received more rain this year, August and September’s triple-digit temperatures were unrelenting, reaching 114 degrees for consecutive days.
Despite, Jake said some of his cotton is doing well. “The night of the Fourth of July, we got a 5-inch rain. They weren’t even talking rain. I really think that’s why some of our cotton has done well.”
But in his region, in order to make a good cotton crop, it’s got to rain in August and cool down in September. “We have yet to have that.
“Surprisingly, some of the dryland has made it. The skip row, two in and one out, has done better. Some of the solid looks good but it just all depends on the plant date.”
They started planting their irrigated cotton May 24th and planted most of the dryland in June.
The later planted cotton pushed through the heat, while the earlier crop, depending on the soil type, varied. The sandier ground has fared better, while the tighter land has “definitely stressed.”
Jake also planted skip row on some of his irrigated marginal ground and solid on his good ground. “My best patch of cotton this year is summer fallow with no cover crop sowed in it, just into stubble from 2023, and I skip rowed in it. And that cotton looks phenomenal.”
Source: https://www.farmprogress.com/