What were the advantages of cotton compared to other crops?
Cover Crop Use in Due north Carolina
More than 450,000 acres of embrace crops were planted in N Carolina in 2017.1 North Carolina famers use comprehend crops for a variety of reasons. Historically, the longer-term benefits of cover crops have been emphasized; all the same, in recent years, focus has shifted to the brusk-term benefits from cover ingather use, including conserving soil wet and suppressing weeds. Due north Carolina growers demand to choose embrace ingather species and manage their encompass crops to maximize the desired benefits.
Why Cereal Rye?
Virtually cover crop benefits are correlated with biomass production—the more biomass, the more benefits. Cereal rye is the highest biomass-producing wintertime comprehend crop that can be grown in Northward Carolina. Cereal rye as well breaks down slower than many other species of cover crops due to a high carbon-to-nitrogen ratio. Cereal rye seed is readily bachelor across the land and relatively cheap. It is also resilient and can grow well beyond a range of production systems.
Cereal Rye Management
Proper management of cereal rye is critical to optimize agronomic benefits. Dry out biomass product tin range anywhere from 1,500 to 12,000 lb/A. Several factors are associated with achieving higher cereal rye biomass levels:
- Early on institution: Planting cereal rye before Nov is platonic to assistance ensure optimum biomass production. Having cereal rye established by November tin be a claiming due to the rotational complication in many Due north Carolina ingather rotations.
- Drilled versus aerial seeding: Cereal rye tin can be successfully established by either drilling or aeriform seeding; however, the success of aerial seeding is highly variable and dependent on postal service-seeding moisture. Drilling is by and large regarded every bit the superior seeding method for optimizing biomass production.
- Seeding rate: Seeding rates of fifty lb/A or higher volition assistance in optimizing biomass production.
- Termination timing: Delaying termination until cereal rye reaches flowering stage volition help optimize biomass product.
Fifty-fifty when using optimal cereal rye management practices, weather can have a large influence on biomass product. In 2019, a series of on-farm trials were conducted across North Carolina to investigate the benefits of a cereal rye comprehend crop mulch in cotton and soybean product. On-farm cooperators were asked to drill cereal rye at a minimum of xc lb/A past the end of October. Growers and then applied twenty lb N/A at 2 to three weeks after cereal rye planting in an effort to optimize biomass. Growers terminated the cover crop via rolling and herbicide burndown after Apr xv. Despite managing cereal rye for optimal biomass production, cover crop biomass levels were 1,830 to 5,650 lb dry out biomass/A (Table 1).
| Site | Cover Crop Planting Date | Average Dry out Cover Crop Biomass (lb/A) | Cotton Planting Appointment | Soybean Planting Date |
| Edgecombe County | Early October | 4760 | 5/7/2019 | 5/6/2019 |
| Halifax County | Mid September | 2860 | five/ix/2019 | 5/9/2019 |
| Hoke Canton | Belatedly September | 5650 | five/x/2019 | 4/27/2019 |
| Northampton County | Late October | 1830 | 5/xx/2019 | v/21/2019 |
Cover Crop Termination Considerations
Cereal rye can be terminated via herbicides, tillage, or rolling. Each method has advantages and disadvantages. Using herbicides for cover ingather termination can be very effective and facilitate planting into continuing cereal rye when a roller is not available. Rolling cereal rye for termination has become increasingly pop for terminating embrace crops. A roller-crimper (Figure 1) tin be purchased, or growers tin can fabricate their own rollers (Figure two). Rollers can be front- or back-mounted on a tractor, and in that location are even new roller units that can be added directly to a planter. If rolling cereal rye is the sole method of termination, soft dough stage should be targeted for termination. Rolling the cereal rye in the opposite direction in which information technology was drilled can assist in roofing the soil surface and optimizing benefits. Greenbacks crops should be planted in the same management in which the cereal rye was rolled. Many producers will combine herbicide burndown and rolling equally a method of termination.
Figure 1. Roller-crimper terminating cereal rye at soft dough stage.
Figure 2. Made roller for terminating cereal rye.
Impact on Cotton wool and Soybean Stand
One of the largest challenges associated with using cereal rye as a cover crop is getting a good greenbacks crop stand, specially when the cereal rye is rolled onto the soil surface. Growers using this organisation often accept to spend several years modifying their planters to move the cereal rye remainder in ways that facilitate optimum seed-to-soil contact. In previous encompass crop inquiry conducted in North Carolina, cotton stand was reduced when planting cotton into both a rolled and continuing cereal rye encompass ingather mulch (Figure iii). Soybean stand up tin as well be adversely impacted if adept seed-to-soil contact is not accomplished when planting the cash crop. Cotton fiber and soybeans are two of the more flexible row crops for compensation of yield from stand loss. Considering stand reduction when planting into a embrace crop mulch can occur, this flexibility is a benefit of these 2 crops planted into a cereal rye embrace crop mulch compared to a crop similar corn that is very sensitive to stand up loss. If the inability to penetrate through the residue becomes severe, yield losses will occur for cotton and soybeans. It becomes increasingly difficult to penetrate through the cover crop residual if the residue is not removed from the ingather row or if the residue has any moisture. In 2019, soybean seeding rate was evaluated at three locations in which soybeans were planted into a standing cereal rye cover crop (Tabular array ii). Cereal rye biomass levels ranged from 3,740 to 8,180 lb dry out matter/A. Seeding rate had no impact on yield (PS=NS, Figure four), indicating that currently recommended soybean seeding rates are adequate for planting soybeans into a cereal rye embrace ingather.
| Site | Comprehend Crop Planting Appointment | Cover Crop Termination Date | Cover Crop Dry Biomass (lb/A) | Soybean Planting Date | Soybean Diverseness |
| Edgecombe Canton | ten/9/2018 | four/25/2019 | 5070 | five/6/2019 | S64XT18 |
| Johnston Canton | ten/16/2018 | 5/2/2019 | 3740 | 5/15/2019 | S52RS86 |
| Rowan County | 10/18/2018 | 5/10/2019 | 8180 | five/10/2019 | S52-Y7X |
Figure 3. Gaps in cotton stand from the disability of the planter to penetrate through the cereal rye cover ingather mulch, ultimately causing hair-pinning of the residual into the seed furrow.
Figure four. The impact of soybean seeding rate on soybean yield when planted into standing cereal rye at 3 locations in 2019.
Soil Moisture Retention Benefits
One of the primary benefits of the rolled cereal rye arrangement is improved soil moisture retention. High biomass embrace crops such as cereal rye provide a noticeably thick layer of organic affair cover on the soil surface, compared to some of the standard cover crop programs that have been used for several years, such as sown or drilled wheat. Immediately later on cereal rye is terminated and rolled, a 2- to three-inch layer of thick ground cover is established on the soil surface, bold biomass development was sufficient. This layer of organic matter allows for improved rainfall penetration into the soil, with less runoff compared to bare-basis or minimal-ground cover systems. It also serves as a bulwark that reduces direct sunlight from reaching the soil surface and reduces evaporation of moisture directly from the soil surface.
Northward Carolina often experiences episodic drought within a given growing season. This mutual occurrence, coupled with a low percent of irrigated acreage, increases the likelihood of yield loss resulting from fifty-fifty short-term dry out spells that occur during the summer months, especially on sandier soils. In some cases, a high biomass cover crop system could retain soil moisture for a longer period of fourth dimension and extend received wet to reduce the length and severity of brusk-lived dry out spells. In our 2019 research, soil moisture was conserved variably across our sites (Table 3). In excessively dry out years, this could minimize ingather stress and yield loss resulting from episodic drought. Figure 5 illustrates the event of the heavy rolled cereal rye residue on surface moisture retention compared to bare ground, where sunlight causes evaporative losses of surface moisture.
| Handling | Sample Engagement | Edgecombe County | Halifax County | Hoke County | Northampton County |
| Soil Moisture (%) | |||||
| Cereal Rye | Mid May | 21.4A | 23.5A | ix.6A | - |
| No Cereal Rye | 21.1A | 16.8B | 8A | - | |
| Cereal Rye | Late May | 12.8A | 14.0A | 7.7A | - |
| No Cereal Rye | 10.7B | ten.6B | v.6B | - | |
| Cereal Rye | Mid June | 23.7A | 22.6A | xix.3A | 21.9A |
| No Cereal Rye | 17.6B | nineteen.8B | 17.5B | 19.0B | |
| Cereal Rye | Late June | 19.0A | 15.4A | 5.6A | xv.9A |
| No Cereal Rye | 12.8B | xv.6A | 3.9B | 14.4A | |
| Cereal Rye | Mid July | vi.5A | 27.5A | 23.2A | 28.8A |
| No Cereal Rye | five.7B | 28.6A | 23.9A | 28.8A | |
| Cereal Rye | Late July | 4.7A | 17.7A | 2.8A | 6.0A |
| No Cereal Rye | iv.5A | 17.3A | 2.4A | 5.5A | |
| Cereal Rye | Early on Aug | 22.9A | 20.3A | 6.5A | 6.6A |
| No Cereal Rye | 22.4A | eighteen.1A | half-dozen.1A | 6.5A | |
| Cereal Rye | Mid Baronial | ix.8A | 18.3A | - | 5.5A |
| No Cereal Rye | 8.8B | 17.8A | - | five.7A | |
College soil moisture retentiveness could also bring about some challenges. Cotton wool is known to be very sensitive to cool, moisture weather during emergence and soon afterwards. A cereal rye cover crop mulch could retain moisture at adversely high levels during the planting season, which could prolong cotton wool emergence or reduce stands if moisture is excessive and temperatures are absurd. In hot, dry springs, even so, this system could retain moisture to ideal levels for planting. Timing of cover crop termination, with special attention given to prevailing conditions, could help improve the chances of success when implementing a cereal rye cover crop.
Prior to termination, the cover crop is often using more than soil moisture compared to fallow footing. In springs where temperatures are warm and wet is express prior to planting of the summer ingather, it may be problematic if embrace crop termination occurs in shut proximity to greenbacks ingather planting. In these scenarios, the embrace ingather should exist terminated when maximum biomass is reached several weeks prior to planting. In wet springs, growers oft discover that cover crops that used soil water facilitated before cash ingather planting.
Figure 5. Visual soil moisture differences observed through darkening of the soil surface under the cereal rye biomass mulch.
Weed Suppression Benefits
In response to herbicide-resistant weeds, weed Extension specialists recommend integrated weed direction that combines cultural, mechanical, chemic, and biological methods of weed control. Comprehend crops are an integral component of a multifaceted weed direction program. Cover crops piece of work to suppress weeds in several ways, including (ane) physical interference of newly germinated weed seedlings; (2) moderation of weed seed formation cues (light, temperature, soil moisture, oxygen, nutrients); (3) allelopathy; and (4) competition with emerged weeds for essential resources.
To suppress pocket-sized-seeded summer almanac weeds species such as Palmer amaranth (pigweed), >5,000 lb dry biomass/A is by and large recommended. This level of biomass production can be hard to achieve in most situations. However, even if >5,000 lb dry biomass/A is not achieved, the benefits to weed management remain. For instance, only iv,760 lb dry biomass/A were produced at the Edgecombe County location during 2019 (Table ane). Despite modest embrace ingather biomass at this location, cereal rye reduced Palmer amaranth and annual grass density approximately 90% compared to dormant treatments 50 days after planting (Effigy 6). Previous research has determined that embrace crops will not completely replace the demand for herbicides. They can, however, alleviate option pressure for herbicide-resistant weeds. At this location, Freedom (glufosinate) was applied postemergence simply after weed densities were collected. Because the cereal rye cover crop reduced Palmer amaranth density by 90%, the chances of selecting for a Palmer amaranth biotype resistant to Liberty in the cereal rye treatment were less compared to the fallow treatment. Weed pressure at the other 2019 research sites was minimal.
In addition to summertime annual weed suppression, the apply of embrace crops to manage winter almanac weed species prior to cash crop planting has been undervalued. At the Northampton County site, encompass crop biomass totaled merely 1,830 lb/A. Although not adequate for suppression of summer annual weeds like Palmer amaranth, cereal rye at this location did have an effect on horseweed, another troublesome herbicide-resistant winter weed (Figure seven).
At this site, the cereal rye encompass crop reduced horseweed density 98% compared to the fallow treatment (Figure 8). Similarly, dormant treatments averaged i dogfennel establish per square meter compared to none in plots planted with cereal rye. Furthermore, horseweed present in the cereal rye plots were smaller and more than easily controlled by Gramoxone (paraquat) applied prior to cotton and soybean planting (Figure 9). Applying herbicides to big weeds has the similar effect of applying reduced rates to smaller weeds, which has serious resistance implications. Reduced rates or full rates practical to large weeds selects for tolerant individuals within the population; over several seasons, this do tin eventually lead to resistance.
Growers should consider integrating cover crops into their weed management programs. As demonstrated in this enquiry, embrace crops compete with wintertime almanac species and can simplify cash crop land preparation. Cereal rye can suppress small-seeded summertime annual weeds like Palmer amaranth. Most of import, long-term adoption of embrace crops will help filibuster the development of herbicide-resistant weeds.
Effigy six. Palmer amaranth and annual grass density in response to a rolled cereal rye cover crop 50 days subsequently planting. Edgecombe County, NC, 2019.
Effigy 7. Horseweed density in fallow field (left) compared to cereal rye comprehend crop (right).
Effigy 8. Horseweed and dogfennel density in response to cereal rye comprehend just prior to cotton planting. Northampton County, NC, 2019.
Effigy ix. Comparing of horseweed size and response to Gramoxone (paraquat) herbicide in fallow field (left) and cereal rye comprehend crop (right).
Cereal Rye Impact on Cotton wool and Soybean Yield
Despite multiple documented short-term and long-term benefits from a cereal rye embrace crop mulch in cotton and soybean fields, the effects on yield are variable. In the serial of trials conducted during 2019, cotton and soybean yields were mostly not afflicted by the presence of a cereal rye encompass crop mulch regardless of achieved encompass ingather biomass (Effigy 10a and Effigy 10b). Soil moisture at these sites was likely acceptable to forbid yield limitations. However, at that place are many scenarios in which the duration and severity of drought tin can negatively affect yields, and in some cases, yields can be improved by the utilise of a cereal rye cover ingather. There was i site where cotton yield was actually reduced by the use of cereal rye comprehend ingather, which was likely due to difficulties at planting in achieving acceptable cotton wool seed-to-soil contact. At the same site, soybean yield was unaffected by lower stand, demonstrating the plasticity of this ingather to various populations.
Figure 10a. Soybean yield as impacted by the presence or absenteeism of a cereal rye cover crop mulch across trial sites in 2019.
Figure 10b. Cotton fiber yield every bit impacted past the presence or absence of a cereal rye cover ingather mulch across trial sites in 2019.
Conclusions
Multiple brusque-term benefits can be achieved by using a cereal rye cover crop mulch in cotton and soybeans; nevertheless, benefits such as weed suppression and soil moisture retention do not e'er lead to cash crop yield increases.
Acknowlegments
The authors would like to acknowledge the following entities for financial support for research highlighted in this publication: NC Soybean Producers Association, Wrangler, NC Cotton Producers Association, NC Foundation for Soil & Water Conservation, NC Association of Soil & Water Conservation Districts, and North Carolina Soil & Water Conservation Districts.
Publication date: April 16, 2020
AG-877
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Source: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/managing-cereal-rye-for-benefits-in-cotton-and-soybeans
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