Crop sequence effects of 10 crops in the northern Great Plains
Introduction
The northern Great Plains of North America is recognized throughout the world for its fertile soils, which contribute to the production of large quantities of cereal grain, oilseed, and pulse crops. This area, which includes most of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and parts of Wyoming and Nebraska in the United States as well as arable regions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia in Canada, contains approximately 52 Mha of cropland and contributes over $20billion in annual agricultural output (Padbury et al., 2002, Statistics Canada, 2003, US Census Bureau, 2002). Despite this impressive level of production, there are concerns about the sustainability of cropping systems within the region. High climatic variability within the northern Great Plains leads to economic instability of crop production practices (Peterson, 1996). This instability is exacerbated by historical and current trends that include a lack of crop diversity (Brummer, 1998, Peterson et al., 1996), declines in soil organic matter (Campbell et al., 1996, Lyon et al., 1997), and improper management of crop nutrients (Westfall et al., 1996).
Diversification, opportunism, risk avoidance, and flexibility are four principles considered essential to create a more sustainable agriculture in highly dynamic ecoregions such as the northern Great Plains (Behnke et al., 1993, Dhuyvetter et al., 1996, Sandford, 1982). Development and utilization of more diverse cropping systems is closely aligned with these principles. Diverse cropping systems have been proposed to reverse many of the negative socio-economic and environmental impacts of predominant crop production practices in the region (Zentner et al., 2001). For such a reversal to occur, however, information on the agronomic potential, environmental impact, and economics of alternative crops is needed. Obtaining such information is complicated by the fact that individual crops interact differently with numerous management components, such as tillage methods, crop sequencing, cultivar selection, nutrient management, and weed and disease control. Understanding how individual crops and management components interact is essential in the development of practical, efficient, and cost-effective cropping systems capable of stabilizing crop production while minimizing deleterious effects on the environment (Hanson et al., 2003).
Tanaka et al. (2002) developed the concept of dynamic cropping systems to facilitate the determination of causal relationships between crop performance and specific management components. As defined, dynamic cropping systems refer to a long-term strategy of annual crop sequencing that optimizes crop and soil use options and the attainment of production, economic, and resource conservation goals by using sound ecological management principles (Tanaka et al., 2002). Optimizing cropping options to meet these goals requires detailed information on multiple management components known to influence crop performance. This information should provide clearer recommendations for proper crop sequencing, which has long been viewed as crucial for cropping system success (Leighty, 1938, Pierce and Rice, 1988).
The objective of this study was to determine the advantages and/or disadvantages of previous crop and crop residues for numerous crop sequences in the northern Great Plains. Specifically, we sought to evaluate the effects of crop sequencing on crop performance, soil coverage by residue, soil water use, surface soil properties, and plant diseases in a crop matrix.
Section snippets
Description of experiment
The research project was located at the Area IV Soil Conservation Districts/USDA-ARS-Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory Research Farm approximately 6 km southwest of Mandan, ND (46°46′22″N, 100°57′09″W). The site, occupying approximately 12.2 ha, was on gently rolling uplands (0–3% slope) with a silty loess mantle overlying till. The predominant soil at the site was a Wilton silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, superactive frigid Pachic Haplustoll). Average soil bulk density, soil pH, and total C
Crop production, crop matrix, 10 crops
Growing season precipitation, May through August, was 181% of the long-term average of 26.0 cm for the 1999 crop matrix and 104% for the 2000 crop matrix (Fig. 2). Even with above average precipitation in 1999, spring wheat and barley yields were not affected by previous crops (p ⩽ 0.05 level, Table 3). Considering that cereals are thought to benefit following legume crops via a ‘legume N credit,’ spring wheat and barley did not show a positive yield effect from following pulse crops such as dry
Crop production, crop matrix, 10 crops
When the three legume crops were compared to the seven non-leguminous crops, on a per-crop basis, the legumes exhibited more positive crop-sequence effects on seed yield compared to the non-leguminous crops which usually exhibited negative effects. When the crop sequential effects of the various residue crops were assessed (Table 5, rightmost column), all three legume crops had positive net relative values. Overall, a relative value of +22 per crop was associated with the legumes compared to
Acknowledgement
We thank J. Hartel, D. Schlenker, D. Wetch, M. Hatzenbuhler, M. Lares, C. Flakker, and C. Klein for their technical assistance; M. West and G. Richardson for statistical advice; and anonymous reviewers for their reviews and constructive comments; and the Area IV Soil Conservation Districts, National Sunflower Association, North Dakota Oilseed Council, Northern Canola Growers Association, and the USDA-ARS National Sclerotinia Initiative for their supplemental support.
USDA-ARS, Northern Plains
References (56)
- et al.
Yield and water use of broadleaf crops in a semiarid climate
J. Agric. Water Manage.
(2003) - et al.
Mineralization and immobilization of nitrogen in fumigated soil and the measurement of microbial biomass nitrogen
Soil Biol. Biochem.
(1984) - et al.
Range ecology at disequilibrium
(1993) - et al.
Wind erosion losses as related to plant silhouette and soil cover
Agron. J.
(1994) - et al.
Yield reduction to leaf disease from yellow (tan) spot and septoria nodorum blotch
Eur. J. Plant Pathol.
(2003) - et al.
Bulk density
Diversity, stability, and sustainable American agriculture
Agron. J.
(1998)- et al.
Nitrogen availability indices
- et al.
Estimation of particulate and total organic matter by weight loss-on-ignition
Long-term effects of tillage and crop rotations on soil organic C and total N in a clay soil in southwestern Saskatchewan
Can. J. Soil Sci.
Wheat health management
Economics of dryland cropping systems in the Great Plains: a review
J. Prod. Agric.
Nitrogen in the environment: sources, problems, and management
Assessing biological soil quality with chloroform fumigation–incubation: Why subtract a control?
Can. J. Soil Sci.
Influences of diverse cropping sequences on durum wheat yield and protein in the semiarid northern Great Plains
Agron. J.
Diseases
A check-list of mycorrhiza in British flora – addenda, errata and index
New Phytol.
Microwave irradiation of soil for routine measurement of microbial biomass carbon
Biol. Fertil. Soils.
Managing plant disease risk in diversified cropping systems
Agron. J.
Leaf spot diseases of barley and spring wheat as influenced by preceding crops
Agron. J.
Survey of blackleg and Sclerotinia stem rot of canola in North Dakota in 1991 and 1993
Plant Dis.
Crop rotation
SAS system for mixed models
Soil organic matter changes over two decades of winter wheat-fallow cropping in western Nebraska
Cited by (76)
Diversified crop rotations improve crop water use and subsequent cereal crop yield through soil moisture compensation
2024, Agricultural Water ManagementBeyond grain: Agronomic, ecological, and economic benefits of diversifying crop rotations with wheat
2024, Advances in AgronomyDiversifying crop rotations enhances agroecosystem services and resilience
2022, Advances in AgronomyEffects of agricultural management regimes on rotating cropland ecosystem respiration and its components in Southeast China
2021, Agricultural and Forest MeteorologyCitation Excerpt :Ecosystem and soil respiration show different seasonal and yearly patterns in upland areas and rice paddies due to various soil redox conditions (Miyata et al., 2000; Zou et al., 2004; Knox et al., 2015; Nocentini and Monti, 2019). Krupinsky et al. (2006) found that the crops during the previous growing season had different effects on the growth of the following crops. Crop roots and stubbles from previous seasons are retained in the field and provide different carbon substrates for soil microbial respiration.
Productivity and soil quality of organic forage, quinoa, and grain cropping systems in the dryland Pacific Northwest, USA
2020, Agriculture, Ecosystems and EnvironmentImpacts of break crops and crop rotations on oilseed rape productivity: A review
2018, European Journal of AgronomyCitation Excerpt :A similar dynamic crop sequencing experiment, which was conducted in Western Australia showed lowest seed yields for OSR when grown on its own residues and seed yields were significantly higher after preceding wheat (Malik et al., 2015). Few studies included barley as a break crop before OSR (Johnston et al., 2005; Krupinsky et al., 2006; Jaskulska et al., 2014; Malik et al., 2015; Peng et al., 2015; Sieling and Christen, 2015). Fig. 3 shows the linear regression of 27 comparisons with an intercept of 0.16 ± 0.16 and a slope of 1.02 ± 0.06 which means a constant yield advantage over the equal yield scenario.