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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Adaptive Cropping Systems Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #417977
Research Project: Developing Practices for Nutrient and Byproducts to Mitigate Climate Change, Improve Nutrient Utilization, and Reduce Effects on Environment (BRIDGE PROJECT)

Location: Adaptive Cropping Systems Laboratory

Title: Tillage and cover crops effect on crop yield in wheat double-cropping systems

Author
item EGBEDI, PETERS - LSU Agcenter
item Fultz, Lisa
item COPES, JOSH - LSU Agcenter
item DODLA, SYAM - LSU Agcenter
item PARVEJ, RASEL - LSU Agcenter
item NETTERVILLE, MELANIE - LSU Agcenter

Submitted to: Agronomy Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/23/2024
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Double cropping winter wheat with summer crops like cotton or soybean and is common in many areas of mid-west and mid-south United States. This practice adds diversity to a system, but can also increase input demands and result in a very complex system to management. This research aimed to explore the impacts of double cropping systems compared to using cover crops in the mid-south. Cotton lint and soybean yield both benefited from the more complex double cropping system or winter cover crops when compared to fallow winter management. Interestingly, winter cover crops had a greater benefit to cotton lint yield when compared to double cropping with wheat. Soybeans responded to tillage, yielding higher with continuous tillage when compared to no-till, but and tended to yield more following winter wheat. The amount of biomass produced by summer cover crops has the potential to negatively impact winter wheat, which is something that necessitates further research.

Technical Abstract: The US is experiencing longer crop growing season in most states which could afford producers the opportunity to diversify into double-cropping (DC) and cover crop systems rather than the predominant summer and winter fallow systems. Thus, this study evaluated DC and cover crops effects on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and soybean (Glycine max) yield under conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT). Summer cover crops (SCC) were sunn hemp (Crotolaria juncea L.) and sorghum sudangrass (Sorghum bicolor) while winter cover crops (WCC) were Austrian winter pea (Pisum sativum) and wheat. Cropping systems were wheat-fallow (W-F), wheat-cotton (W-C), wheat-soybean (W-S), W-SCC, WCC-S, F-C, WCC-S and W-S. Tillage effect on crop yields varied across years. In 2021, wheat yield in CT of W-C, W-F, and W-SCC (2831, 2689 and 2646 kg ha-1) significantly differed from NT of W-S (1720 kg ha-1). No significant tillage effect on cotton lint yield between W-C and WCC-C. For soybean, in 2020, the CT of W-S and WCC-S significantly outyielded the NT of W-S and WCC-S. Cropping system effect on wheat yield between W-S and W-SCC (1419 and 1987 kg ha-1) was significant in 2020 due to low stand counts in W-SCC arising from the thick summer cover crop biomass. Cotton lint yield in WCC-C outyielded W-C in all three years but not significant. Soybean grain yield in W-S was consistently higher than WCC-S though not significant. Cotton lint and soybean grain yield in the fallow systems were the least. Overall, in a short-term, crop yield in DC and cover crop systems were similar.