Grant’s Stumpf Center site for winter pea trials

    Farmers in Chase and Perkins counties know spring-planted peas can provide an alternative in dryland crop rotation.
    What farmers probably don’t know is that it may be possible to grow winter peas that can be planted in the fall for harvest next summer.
    Dr. Dipak Santra, alternative crops breeding specialist at UN-L’s Panhandle Research and Extension Center at Scottsbluff, wants to find out if winter peas can survive a Nebraska winter.
    Santra has planted two identical winter pea test plots—one at the Stumpf International Wheat Center at Grant and another at the High Plains Ag Lab near Sidney.
    Like winter wheat, winter peas require a prolonged cold period to begin the flower process in the spring. This process is called vernalization.
    Santra planted the plots in late September. As of yet, the plants have not broken through the surface. Just like wheat, moisture is a factor in winter pea germination.
    He said he’s excited about what a successful plot could mean for crop rotation, especially in winter wheat stubble.
    Peas are not a host for wheat stem sawfly that can carry forward in the soil. Introduction of winter peas has the possibility of breaking the cycle since the sawfly does not have a plant host.
    He said winter peas would work well in a rotation with winter wheat and millet.
    Corn precedes the rotation with spring-planted peas, followed by wheat.
    Like spring peas, winter peas enrich the soil by fixing nitrogen.
    One year of variety trials under irrigation has already been completed at UN-L’s Panhandle Research and Extension Center at Scottsbluff.
    The big question in this first year of the dryland trials is whether the winter pea can survive a Nebraska winter.
    He said the trials include 15 different pea varieties from three different seed companies. All 15 are intended for human consumption.
Alternative in rotation
    Winter field peas are grown in the Pacific Northwest for food-grade grain. Neighboring states such as South Dakota and western Kansas have been testing winter pea production, as well.
    Presently, none of the economically viable alternative crops are fall-sown annual broadleaf crops. Current rotation choices in addition to wheat include spring or summer-sown pea and proso millet/sunflower/corn.
    The winter pea is attractive for its potential to diversify and intensify wheat-based cropping systems in the semi-arid High Plains. The potential benefits and advantages are numerous:
    Winter peas typically out-yield spring-planted peas by 20 to 30 bushels per acre. The crop can be planted more reliably at the optimal planting time than spring peas, due to late snows.     Winter peas are less susceptible to heat and drought conditions during flowering time, which frequently limits yield in spring-planted pea.
    Planting a crop in the fall provides vegetative cover until the following spring, reducing wind erosion of soil.
    Other benefits include the potential to improve weed management, increase water-use efficiency of the system and breaking the wheat stem sawfly cycle.
Scottsbluff irrigated trial
    The goal of the 2020-21 variety trials at Scottsbluff was to identify suitable food-grade winter pea varieties that would survive Nebraska winter and compare yields.
    The first year of trial plots were irrigated to ensure good emergence and stand before the plants entered dormancy over the winter.
    All 14 varieties had excellent winter survival, with no winter kill. Irrigation was continued in the spring as needed. The total amount of irrigation water applied was 6.5 inches, in addition to 5 inches of total precipitation from planting to harvest.
    All varieties flowered between the end of May and the first week of June. The trial was harvested in July.
    Average grain yield was 51 bushels per acre, ranging from 24 bushels per acre for a forage variety commonly harvested in May for hay to 71 pounds per acre
    Test weights ranged from 53 to 62 pounds per bushel.
    If the dryland trial is as successful as the 2020-21 irrigated trial, winter peas could be a game-changer for dryland wheat production systems. One important question to be answered is the optimal window for planting.
    Potential longer-term benefits of adding winter peas to a dryland crop rotation include income stability and improved risk management.
    The USDA Risk Management Agency insurance program is favorable to manage farm-level risks associated with winter pea production.
    This could enable producers to spread risk among multiple commodity crops, particularly where there is only currently cereal production.
    Food-quality winter peas are also a highly nutritious source of plant-based protein and other nutrients such as micronutrients, vitamins, dietary fiber, resistant starch and antioxidants, as well as in supplying high-protein feed for local livestock industry.  
    (Staff and Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources reports were used to compile this story. )