TY - JOUR
T1 - Cover crops have negligible impact on soil water in Nebraska Maize–Soybean rotation
AU - Barker, J. Burdette
AU - Heeren, Derek M.
AU - Koehler-Cole, Katja
AU - Shapiro, Charles A.
AU - Blanco-Canqui, Humberto
AU - Elmore, Roger W.
AU - Proctor, Christopher A.
AU - Irmak, Suat
AU - Francis, Charles A.
AU - Shaver, Tim M.
AU - Mohammed, Ali T.
N1 - Funding Information:
The project was partially funded by paired competitive grants from both the Nebraska Corn Board and the Nebraska Soybean Board. The project received indirect support from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the University of Nebraska Water for Food Global Institute. JBB also received funding from a University of Nebraska Presidential Graduate Fellowship. DMH would like to acknowledge the financial support of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch project #1009760. We thank the many supporting research personnel who helped with data collection: Ed Barnes, Alan Boldt, Matthew Drudik, Ryan Freiberger, Tom Galusha, Rodrigo Dal Sasso Lourenço, Michael Mainz, Mitiku Mamo, Jeremy Milander, Tyler Smith, Jennifer Sherman, Aaron Steckly, Nick Volesky, Dalon Koubek, and many others whom we apologize for not listing specifically. Daily weather data were obtained from the High Plains Regional Climate Center. Angela Bastidas provided advice on statistical analysis. We thank Brianna Hitt and other personnel of the Statistical Cross-disciplinary Collaboration and Consulting Laboratory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Drs. Erin Blankenship and Kent Eskridge for their consulting on the statistical analysis. Cover crop seed for the first year of the study was kindly provided by Green Cover Seed, Bladen, NE. We also thank the two reviewers who provided valuable input.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the American Society of Agronomy.
PY - 2018/9/1
Y1 - 2018/9/1
N2 - One perceived cost of integrating winter cover cropping in maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] rotation systems is the potential negative impact on soil water storage available for primary crop production. The objective of this 3-yr study was to evaluate the effects of winter cover crops on soil water storage and cover crop biomass production following no-till maize and soybean rotations. Locations were near Brule (west-central), Clay Center (south-central), Concord (northeast), and Mead (east-central), NE. Treatments included crop residue only (no cover crop) and a multi-species cover crop mix, both broadcast-seeded before primary crop harvest and drilled following harvest. Pre-harvest broadcast-seeded cereal rye (Secale cereale L.) was also included in the last year of the study because rye was observed to be the dominant component of the mix in spring biomass samples. Soil water content was monitored using neutron probe or gravimetric techniques. Mean aboveground cover crop biomass ranged from practically 0 to ~3,200 kg ha–1 across locations and cover crop treatments. Differences in the change in soil water storage between autumn and spring among treatments occurred in 4 of 20 location–rotation phase–years for the top 0.3 m of soil and 3 of 20 location–rotation phase–years for the 1.2-m soil profile. However, these differences were small (<11 mm for the top 0.3 m and <26 mm for the 1.2-m profile). In conclusion, winter cover crops did not have an effect on soil water content that would impact maize and soybean crop production.
AB - One perceived cost of integrating winter cover cropping in maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] rotation systems is the potential negative impact on soil water storage available for primary crop production. The objective of this 3-yr study was to evaluate the effects of winter cover crops on soil water storage and cover crop biomass production following no-till maize and soybean rotations. Locations were near Brule (west-central), Clay Center (south-central), Concord (northeast), and Mead (east-central), NE. Treatments included crop residue only (no cover crop) and a multi-species cover crop mix, both broadcast-seeded before primary crop harvest and drilled following harvest. Pre-harvest broadcast-seeded cereal rye (Secale cereale L.) was also included in the last year of the study because rye was observed to be the dominant component of the mix in spring biomass samples. Soil water content was monitored using neutron probe or gravimetric techniques. Mean aboveground cover crop biomass ranged from practically 0 to ~3,200 kg ha–1 across locations and cover crop treatments. Differences in the change in soil water storage between autumn and spring among treatments occurred in 4 of 20 location–rotation phase–years for the top 0.3 m of soil and 3 of 20 location–rotation phase–years for the 1.2-m soil profile. However, these differences were small (<11 mm for the top 0.3 m and <26 mm for the 1.2-m profile). In conclusion, winter cover crops did not have an effect on soil water content that would impact maize and soybean crop production.
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U2 - 10.2134/agronj2017.12.0739
DO - 10.2134/agronj2017.12.0739
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85052714138
SN - 0002-1962
VL - 110
SP - 1718
EP - 1730
JO - Journal of Production Agriculture
JF - Journal of Production Agriculture
IS - 5
ER -