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Annual Report of Progress
to the
MISSISSIPPI SOYBEAN PROMOTION BOARD
for 1995


Title: Soybean Rotation and Tillage Systems in Drill and 30-Inch Rows for Conservation Compliance in the Blackbelt Prairie
Project Leaders: N. W. Buehring, S. R. Spurlock, R. L. Ivy, J. D. Summers, M. A. Blaine, and J. D. Roberts
Department(s) or Branch Station(s): Northeast Branch Station, MSU Ag Eco Dept., Prairie Research Unit, Natural Resource Conservation Service, and Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service

Objectives

  1. Evaluate drilled and 30-inch row soybean yield and percent ground residue cover as influenced by selected tillage and crop rotation/tillage systems on soils in the Blackbelt Prairie region.
  2. Determine direct and fixed costs and net returns to land and management of each cropping/tillage system at selected locations.
  3. Determine which systems meet conservation compliance.

Significant Accomplishments

The year 1995 was the fourth and final year of a 30-inch row tillage production systems study on the Vaiden silty clay (Prairie) and Leeper silty clay soil (Verona); and the third and final year for a Houston clay (Prairie) soil. The drilled soybean tillage production systems studies on a Houston clay (Prairie) and the on-farm Brooksville clay soil (West Point) study were added in the spring of 1993. The wet spring of 1993 on both sites, however, did not allow us to initiate tillage treatments until the fall of 1993.

Rainfall (Appendix Table 1) in 1992 was below normal in May, July, and August at Prairie and May, July, and September at Verona with about 80 and 95% of normal for the growing season, respectively. Rainfall in 1993 was below normal for June at Prairie and for July at Verona, with an overall growing season of 15% and 25% above normal, respectively. Rainfall in 1994 was above normal (169 to 236%) for June, July and September at most locations. The early wet fall and winter of 1994 delayed all fall tillage a pplications until early February 1995. Rainfall for 1995 was below normal in August and September at Prairie, and below normal for May, July, and September at Verona. Rainfall at West Point in 1995 was below normal in May and July.

Yield Response to Tillage Systems

30-inch Row Studies:
Continuous soybean: Continuous monocrop soybeans in no-tillage (NT), ridge-tillage [(RT) cultivated once or twice with a high clearance cultivator] and turf aerator/renovator (TA) stale seedbed systems (treated with 2,4-D in February-March and a burndown herbicide 2-4 wk before planting) and conventional tillage [(CT) chisel + disk + doall] were evaluated in 1992-95 on a Leeper silty clay (Appendix Table 2), Vaiden silty clay (Appendix Table 3) and in 1993-95 on a Houston clay soil (Appendix Table 4). With except ion of RT (Leeper and Vaiden) in 1993, these treatments showed no yield differences in 1993-95; and except for NT (Houston clay) in 1995 were equal to conventional tillage [(CT) fall/spring chisel + disk + harrow]. The low RT yield in 1993 was due to stem canker disease.
   The results in 1992 were similar, except NT on the Vaiden and Leeper soils produced lower yield than RT, CT and TA. The lower yield was a result of crop injury caused by a post-direct herbicide application on the Vaiden site and severe prostrate knotw eed competition on the Leeper site. Three year (93-95) average yield analysis on Leeper and Vaiden silty clay soils and 2-yr (94-95) on the Houston clay soil indicate no difference between NT, CT, TA, and RT.
Corn-soybean rotation: Three-year (1993-95) results from the Vaiden and Leeper soils, and two-year (1994-95) results from the Houston clay soil indicated that RT soybean following RT corn showed no rotation yield difference except in 1993 (Appendix Tables 2-4). The lower yield for continuous RT soybean on the Leeper and Vaiden soils in 1993 is attributed to stem canker disease. The paratill-bed (PTB) soybean following paratill-bed corn treatment was introduced into the studies in the fall of 1993. The Vaiden and Houston soil showed no yield response to paratill. However, on the Leeper silty clay soil, PTB produced higher yield than all other.< /td>

Publications

  1. N. W. Buehring. 1994. Soybean Conservation Tillage Equipment. p. 44-46. Southern Soybean Conference, Memphis, TN.
  2. Ivy, R. L., N. W. Buehring, G. A. Jones, and J. E. Stafford. 1995. Soybean yield response to conservation tillage for blackland prairie. P. 160. Southern Soybean Conference. February 15-17, 1995. Memphis, TN.
  3. Ivy, R. L., N. W. Buehring, S. R. Spurlock, J. D. Summers, M. A. Blaine, J. D. Roberts, and G. A. Jones. 1995. Conservation tillage effects on productivity in the blackland prairie. P. 48-51. Proceedings of the 1995 Southern Conservation Tillage Conference for Sustainable Agriculture. June 26-28, Jackson, MS.
  4. Jones, G. A., N. W. Buehring, R. L. Ivy, and J. D. Summers. 1995. Effect of soybean-corn rotation and tillage on ground residual cover. P. 59-63. Proceedings of the 1995 Southern Conservation Tillage Conference for Sustainable Agriculture, June 26-28, Jackson, MS.
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Soybeans in Mississippi
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