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Sheep Grazing Wheat Summer Fallow And The Impact On Soil Nitrogen, Moisture, And Crop Yield, Andrew W. Lenssen, E. E. Snyder, H. B. Goosey, P. G. Hatfield

Andrew W. Lenssen

In typical dryland farming areas of Montana, annual precipitation is not sufficient for annual harvest of small grains. Summer fallow in alternate years, is a common method of conserving soil moisture to produce a crop in the following season. Current methods of fallow management are primarily mechanical tillage and spraying with herbicides. Although these methods are effective, they are expensive, making fallow management the highest variable cost associated with dryland grain production. The objectives of this study were to compare the impact of grazing small grains stubble with sheep, as a fallow management tactic, against traditional management practices of chemical …