Soybean School: Wrestling residue in no till systems

What’s the best way to manage corn residue to mitigate soybean yield loss in a no-till system?

That's a question University of Wisconsin Madison soybean specialist Shawn Conley hears more and more from growers as both corn yield and the biomass produced by more prolific hybrids continues to grow.

On this episode of the RealAgriculture Soybean School, Conley shares results from a Wisconsin trial designed to assess different methods of corn residue management in no-till soybeans. He says a second year of research will help provide more conclusive insights, but 2022 results indicate that chopping corn residue in the fall or spring prior to planting produces better yields than straight no-till. The research also indicated that soybean yields take another jump when nitrogen (30 lbs in this trial) is applied in the spring.

#agriculture #farming #soybean #residuemanagement

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[bradchoq]

UAN plus humid acid for 3 years in fall... VRT Lime program. Now I have issues with no residue by June.

[billybeaudry]

was nitrogen broadcasted, sprayed with fan nozzles or 2x2 with the planter for the trial?

[JustinRiddick-ie]

Vertical tillage works best for corn residue it doesn’t go deep in the soil but enough to chop up and breakdown the residue

[jonstevensmaplegrovefarms]

It's not expensive to get into strip-till. The money that you would spend on a disk Ripper of purchasing it and operating it and then the money you would spend on a finisher doing a couple passes and then the money you would spend on broadcast fertilizer versus a strip-till rig we're at today's fertilizer prices you can't afford to not be stripped tilling.

How can a system that can grow the same or better crops, save you $100 per acre in investment not be affordable?

[jonstevensmaplegrovefarms]

If we have good active soil life the residue was a non-issue by late summer most of it is gone. As far as planting through it that is really easy either run row cleaners or don't and just run the planter a little bit deeper like an inch inch and a half versus a half inch and you're good to go

Yield does not determine success when trying new systems