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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lincoln, Nebraska » Agroecosystem Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #100154
Title: YIELD LOSSES FROM SIMULATED HAIL INJURY TO PROSO MILLET

Author
item Shanahan, John
item SCHATZ, BLAINE - NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIV
item BALTENSPERGER, DAVID - UNIV OF NEBRASKA,LINCOLN
item SOOBY, JANE - UNIV OF NEBRASKA,LINCOLN
item KACHMAN, STEPHEN - UNIV OF NEBRASKA,LINCOLN

Submitted to: Agronomy Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/20/1999
Publication Date: 6/15/2000
Citation: Shanahan J.F., Schatz, B., Baltensperger, D., Sooby, J., Kachman, S. 2000. Use of shoot reduction treatments as a means of simulating hail injury to proso millet. Comm. Soil Science & Plant Analysis J. 31:2843-2854.

Interpretive Summary: Proso millet is a warm season annual grass well adapted for grain production in the western Great Plains of the U.S., where risk of hail injury is greater than any other region of the U.S. Currently, producers in this region cannot purchase hail insurance as a risk management tool for this crop, because loss adjustment procedures are not available. Adjustment procedures for other crops have been developed in the past through research that has focused on applying various mechanical defoliation treatments such as leaf removal, stand reduction and stem breakage at various crop growth stages as a means of simulating hail damage. These studies would then measure yield loss in response to simulated hail damage treatments. The goal of our research was conducted to assess the impact of shoot removal treatments imposed at different crop growth stages on grain yield loss of proso millet grown under several environments, and provide adjustment procedure for the crop insurance industry. Simulated hail injury treatments consisted of a control and three levels of shoot removal (1/3, 2/3, and 3/3 of full stand) applied at four growth stages (emergence, 4-leaf, boot, and heading stages). The experiments were conducted at two locations (Akron, CO and Carrington, ND) during 1996 and 1997 to assess treatment impact on grain yield. Our work showed that yield loss from increasing levels of shoot removal varied with growth stage. Thus, our work suggests that crop adjustment procedures involving assessment of yield losses from actual hail injury should vary with crop growth stage. However, in general, yield loss was a linear function of stand loss.

Technical Abstract: Proso millet, Panicum miliaceum (L.), is a warm season annual grass well adapted for grain production in the western Great Plains of the U.S., where risk of hail injury is greater than any other region of the U.S. Currently, producers in this region cannot purchase hail insurance as a risk management tool for this crop. Our research was conducted to assess impact of shoot removal treatments imposed at different crop growth stages on grain yield loss of proso millet grown under several environments as a means of simulating hail damage. Our goal was to provide information for development of crop insurance adjustment procedures. We also wanted to determine the impact of shoot removal on various grain yield components. Simulated hail injury treatments consisted of a control and three levels of shoot removal (1/3, 2/3, and 3/3 of full stand) applied at four growth stages (emergence, 4-leaf, boot, and heading stages). The experiments were conducted at two locations (Akron, CO and Carrington, ND) during 1996 and 1997 to assess treatment impact on relative grain yield (RGY), expressed as percent of control. A significant shoot removal x growth stage interaction was observed for RGY, indicating yield loss from increasing shoot removal varied with growth stage. A linear reduction in RGY to increasing levels of shoot removal was observed for the 4-leaf, boot and heading growth stages, while RGY displayed a segmented linear response to increasing shoot removal at emergence. Variation in grain yield, induced by simulation treatments, was more consistently correlated with variation in seed number than seed weight.