Soybean Study Evaluates Residue Control
ALEXANDRIA, LA.
LSU AgCenter soybean specialist Ron Levy is conducting the first year
of a study at the Dean Lee Research Station to find the balance between
preparing an adequate seedbed and retaining organic matter left from
the harvest.
Levy has a series of strip plots with crop residue management techniques, including:
• No till.
• No till that is flail mowed after harvest.
• A stale seedbed, plowed in the fall to be followed with a herbicide treatment prior to planting.
• Conventional tillage.
• Burning.
LSU AgCenter soybean specialist
Ron Levy looks over a test of different methods of handling plant
material left after harvest. Levy will plant soybeans into the test
strips at the Dean Lee Research Station to determine any effects on
yields.
Photo by Bruce Schultz
In the spring, the different tillage strips will be planted with the same soybean variety at a uniform seeding rate.
Burning may make planting easier than planting into crop residue, but
burning harvested crop residue causes many problems, such as destroyed
organic matter and increased soil erosion, Levy said. Fire also
increases the potential for nutrients to leave a field in water runoff.
Previous crop residue can contribute soil nutrients and
micronutrients to be used by successive crops with a potential value of
$80 per acre.
“We’re trying to encourage growers not to burn because of the erosion
and nutrient loss,” Levy said. “Leaving the residue on the soil
increases the organic matter and reduces soil losses from erosion.”
Plant material left on the field after harvest also slows the
movement of water out of a field, he said, but burning causes soil
erosion and nitrogen loss.
“By leaving the residue on the soil surface, it reduces the amount of
soil and nutrient losses because rain hitting the soil dislodges
particles and puts them into solution,” Levy said.
Conservation tillage can benefit producers by allowing them to plant
earlier. With no tillage or fall tillage, fields are ready for planting
when weather is favorable in early spring, Levy said.∆