No-till Forage Establishment in Alaska

We established experiments on farmers’ fields at four locations in southcentral Alaska and two locations in interior Alaska. The southcentral Alaska sites were near Anchor Point (59 ̊45'N, 151 ̊39'W) on Edna Anderson’s farm, near Sterling (60 ̊32'N, 150 ̊39'W) on Paul Rumley’s farm, at Point Mackenzie (61 ̊24'N, 150 ̊04'W) on the Trytten Farm, and at Palmer (61 ̊39'N, 150 ̊04'W) on Peter Scorup’s farm (Figure 1). The interior Alaska sites were near Delta Junction (63 ̊55'N, 145 ̊44'W) on Schultz Farms and near Fairbanks (64 ̊55'N, 147 ̊43'W) on Columbia Creek Farm. Climate at the different sites varies from moderately maritime to strongly continental (Table 1). The Anchor Point area experiences wetter and cooler growing seasons than the other sites (figures 2 and 3). April and May are typically the driest months, so spring moisture is often limited, especially if snow cover is inadequate to supply enough melt water to sufficiently wet the soil. The Delta Junction and Palmer areas experience strong winter and spring winds that tend to remove much of the snow cover and dry the soil surface in spring. During the