Make plans now to come to the Haskell Ag Lab Fall Fest on Saturday, September 25th. The event will run from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Some of the activities include demonstrations on making applesauce, apple cider, aronia berry jelly, how to transplant your perennials, information and demonstration on hops, a pollinator garden, bees & honey demonstration, arboretum and hazelnut tour. We will have crafts and activities for kids available all afternoon. Free popcorn, apple snacks, cotton candy. This is a free event. Fun for the entire family, bring your friends!
Meet Logan Dana
Logan is our Farm Operations Manager. He manages the day-to-day work of the farming operation at HAL. In addition, he procures the seed, chemicals and other necessary supplies for the farm and coordinates amongst the researchers and educators to make sure plots and surrounding lands are planted, maintained and harvested. Logan also oversees the grounds keeping and maintenance of equipment and facilities for HAL.
Please plan to join us at the Haskell Ag Lab for Coffee and Conversations the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 9 AM. We will have coffee and snacks ready. The next Coffee and Conversations will take place on Tuesday, October 12th. Please bring your questions and ideas for programs. We look forward to seeing you!
Current Research Project at HAL - Hybrid hazelnut planting at HAL, Oct. 2020
Lead Investigator(s): Aaron Clare, Forestry Properties Manager, aaron.clare@unl.edu
The goal of the project is to document survival, growth rate, and most importantly nut yield. Hazelnuts will start to produce nuts after 4-5 years with yields increasing each year after that and can live for over 50 years. Some benefits of hazelnuts as a crop are that they require much less inputs, only need to be planted once, can stabilize and improve soil, sequester carbon, and provide habitat for beneficial birds and insects. New markets hazelnuts are being created, and hybrid hazelnuts are in a new phase where reliable cultivars are now available for the Great Plains and Midwest US. This could be an alternative crop for Nebraska farmers.
In October 2020, a trial was initiated of two hybrid hazelnuts cultivars – ‘Grand Traverse’, a hybrid of European hazelnut (Corylus avellana) and Turkish tree hazel (C. colurna); and ‘OSU 541.147’ The BeastTM, a hybrid of European hazelnut and American hazelnut (C. americana). The planting location is the UNL Haskel Agriculture Lab in southern Dixon county. Terrain is on top of a slight hill with a 5% south slope with Nora – Crofton silty clay loam soils. The plants are clones that were propagated via tissue culture micropropagation. In April 2021 bare-root seedlings of the native American hazelnut were planted in outer rows and at the beginnings and ends of each row to encircle the hybrids.
The cultivars are spaced initially at 10’ apart in rows of that are 20’ apart, with at least 20’ and the ends for maintenance equipment to turn around. The American hazels are planted 5’ apart because they are only being used as a pollen source. The cultivars will be pruned to grow as a single-trunk tree with an open, vase-like form to maximize light penetration. The 10’ spacing is considered ‘double density’ in the Oregon hazelnut industry. After about 10 years, the crowns of the trees will start to compete, so every other tree will need to be removed for a final 20’ spacing apart in the rows. (20’x20’ design). The American hazelnuts will be left as planted.
Hazelnuts are not self-pollinating and need to have a different pollen source from their own to produce nuts. The two cultivars in the trial are pollen-compatible, so they should produce nuts if planted together. However, more than one source of pollen is recommended, so the American hazelnut seedlings are included to add more diverse pollen to the mix.
Perennial rye is planted between the tree rows to serve as a ground cover. It will be mowed periodically during the growing season. Weed control directly around the trees within the rows will use glyphosate herbicide. A person could plant any other food or cover crop they want in between the rows in an ‘Alley Cropping’ technique.
If needed, a fence to protect the trees from deer browsing and rubbing will be installed. A person could decide to protect each tree individually if the cost of a fence is too great. Drip irrigation is also planned using ½ gallon per hour emitters for watering during the growing season. Until that is installed, the plants are watered with equivalent of 1 – 2 inches of water per week.
In the lean years, farmers focus our efforts on trimming costs where we can and maximizing profitability on what we can’t cut completely. This cost-conscious behavior is something we could be doing all the time, but we pay more attention to it some years more than others.
Fertility is critical to a good crop, so we know not to ignore our crop fertility needs, but we don’t always think about ways we may be able to trim costs by better utilizing local nutrients. Manure has many benefits, including some related to soil health, but perhaps the most recognized benefit is that manure contains the nutrients our crops need. Manure isn’t always an inexpensive product, but it contains multiple nutrients that are highly valued when planning your fertility program. To find out exactly which nutrients are in your manure, and how much, you will need a lab analysis. If you are already using manure and don’t have an analysis, take a sample and send it to a lab, or ask for the analysis results from your manure supplier. A manure analysis is one cost that cannot be cut. The small analysis fee up front will save you money in the long run. After all, you wouldn’t use commercial fertilizer without knowing exactly what the nutrient make-up of it is, would you?
Commercial fertilizer and manure work together well, but only if you know how many nutrients you’re putting out in manure so that you can cut back some on commercial fertilizers and save that expense. Manures have both ammonium nitrogen and organic nitrogen. Ammonium nitrogen is usable by crops, but it can be lost if manure is not incorporated into the soil. Organic nitrogen is like a slow-release fertilizer; it becomes available over time with only about 40% of it available the first year and another 35% becoming available over the next 3 years. Depending on the type of manure you’re using and how you apply that manure, you may still need more nitrogen, but it is possible that other nutrients can be omitted from future applications.
Phosphorus (P2O5) is about 70% available and potassium (K2O) is 80% available the first year after manure is applied, with the remainder of both becoming available in the future. We’re often applying manure at rates that are more than sufficient for these nutrients though, so additional commercial fertilizer is not needed for several years. If you need help figuring out how much of your applied nutrients will be available for your crop next year, let me know, and I’d be glad to help you determine that or you can use our recently updated NebGuide, Determining Crop Available Nutrients from Manure.
Once you know what’s in your manure, how can you be sure of how much of those nutrients you are putting on your field? You need to know your application rate, of course. You would multiply your available nutrients by your application rate to know the total amount of nutrients applied. But how do I know my application rate for manure, you ask? The same way we know exactly how much commercial product we’re applying. We know how much manure we are applying because we calibrate the spreader. If you hire someone to do your application, you may not realize that they calibrate their spreaders too, but they’d have to. If they didn’t, they may run out of product before they’re done or have extra when they leave your farm. That’s a topic for next time though. I’ll talk to you then for part 2.
Suggestions/Requests
Do you have a suggestion or a request for a program at the Haskell Ag Lab? We want to hear from you.
Click this link and complete this form and submit. We will look at all suggestions and requests. The form is available at: https://go.unl.edu/halsuggest
