2018
Effective Winter Rye Management for Maximum Soybean Potential
Contributor/Checkoff:
Category:
Sustainable Production
Keywords:
Field management Nutrient managementSoil healthTillageYield trials
Parent Project:
This is the first year of this project.
Lead Principal Investigator:
Michael Ostlie, North Dakota State University
Co-Principal Investigators:
Project Code:
QSSB
Contributing Organization (Checkoff):
Institution Funded:
Brief Project Summary:

Rye is an increasingly attractive option for soybean producers in North Dakota. Rye counters some of the main production concerns with soybeans including combatting herbicide resistant weeds, preventing soil erosion, and allows producers to plant further into salt-affected soils. More work is needed in order to ensure the utilization of rye is safe for the soybean crop. The two crops can co-exist with minimal impact to the soybeans but with the wrong termination timing, the soybeans can have a range of effects including reduced stand, lower yield, and later maturity. In much of the previous research, the soybeans have been planted later than typical to time the rye termination correctly....

Unique Keywords:
#crop management systems
Information And Results
Project Deliverables

This research will be presented at various Extension meetings and Field Day events throughout the year. The CREC gets over 500 on-site visitors each year to our station. This allows for hands-on and visual evidence of the practices being discussed. This information is also likely to be disseminated at various producer meetings throughout the year and may even be a focus subject for a future cover crop tour at the CREC. The results will also be posted to the CREC website and made available in a reader-friendly format for the ND Soybean Council research report.

Final Project Results

Updated July 4, 2018:

View uploaded report Word file

Effective Winter Rye Management for Maximum Soybean Potential – Executive Summary
Mike Ostlie, Greg Endres, and Steve Zwinger

2017 marked the end of a research phase with the rye and soybean relay cropping system. The goals of this system include preventing erosion, managing glyphosate-resistant weeds, grazing/haying, or creating a more firm spring seed bed. This research was initiated in 2013 with the goal of identifying effective rye termination methods so that soybean yields were maximized. Rye and soybean planting dates were added as components over the last three years.

Our rye planting dates ranged from Aug-Nov each year. Spring survival remained high through early October planting. The early November planting still had 60% spring survival, even though it did not emerge after planting in the fall. For some uses of rye this opens the possibility of planting rye after corn harvest, though winter cover and biomass production would be considerably lower than earlier planting. Mid-season planting into corn, or planting after an earlier harvested crop would increase the benefit of rye.
The timing of rye termination is biggest key to success with the rye and soybean relay. In our previous work with rye termination, we found glyphosate to be the most consistent method for termination. Since 2013 when rye was terminated 2 weeks prior to planting there was no impact on soybean yields. Terminating the rye at soybean planting often had a similar yield to the check, but waiting until 2 weeks after planting often led to lower yields. There was 1 complete crop failure when terminating at soybean planting and 3 crop failures when waiting until after planting.

Available soil moisture is what determines the success of soybean establishment. One of the assumptions of our research was that planting soybeans into rye earlier would be safer since the rye would be smaller and using less resources. However, in 2016 and 2017 we had two very dry springs where some of the lowest soil moisture levels for the year were in May. In both years, when we planted soybeans in early May into rye there were lower yields compared to the check. Whereas in both years, we had early June rains and there was no impact of rye on the soybeans, indicating it was more risky to plant soybeans early those years. However, it should be noted that even though the early planted soybean were affected by rye, the yields were still equal to the best treatments at later soybean planting dates.

The United Soybean Research Retention policy will display final reports with the project once completed but working files will be purged after three years. And financial information after seven years. All pertinent information is in the final report or if you want more information, please contact the project lead at your state soybean organization or principal investigator listed on the project.