ABSTRACT:
Stale seedbed planting is a technique soybean producers have begun to adopt for the clay soils of the Delta. It is defined as planting in a smooth, weedy, but not recently disturbed seedbed. On these clay soils of the Delta, erosion may be a problem if a fall or winter tillage operation is necessary to smooth the seedbed, leaving no soil cover from residue or vegetation during the rainy, winter season. Wheat was investigated as a cover crop. Wheat as a cover crop did provide sufficient soil cover from vegetation, although in most years natural winter vegetation also was sufficient. Wheat as a cover crop did not affect soybean yields in any year of three experiments conducted over 6 years.
Footnotes
C. D. Elmore is a plant physiologist and R. A. Wesley is an agricultural engineer in the field crops mechanization research unit and L. G. Heatherly is an agronomist in the soybean production research unit, Jamie Whitten Delta States Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Stoneville, Mississippi 38776. The authors acknowledge the assistance of Ray Adams in determining ground cover data and Larry Ginn and Frank Bellipanni for technical assistance.
- Copyright 1992 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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