Soybean yield and resource conservation field borders

Abstract

The ecological and environmental shortcomings of landscapes dominated by monocultures of crops have led to increased pressure to farm in a more holistic, environmentally sound, socially acceptable manner. The USDA Continuous Conservation Reserve Program (CCRP) is one answer to this shift in philosophy. One program within CCRP, CP33, habitat buffers for upland birds, was designed to provide incentives for substituting herbaceous buffers for crop field margins to promote wildlife habitat. Farmers have been slow to sign up for CP33, possibly out of concern for the borders’ impact on insect pest abundance, crop yield and profitability. We examined the impact of three herbaceous border compositions on yield in soybean over 3 years. The border treatments were: (1) a cool-season grass/legume mixture, (2) a warm-season grass/legume mixture, and (3) tall fescue. In addition, the experimental control (soybean border) provided the opportunity to examine the effect of hedgerows on crop yield. We found only a few differences in soybean yield among border treatments and discerned no specific cause-and-effect relationship between buffers and soybean yield, or among distances into the soybean fields from the crop–border interface. We conclude that herbaceous conservation buffers would have little or no impact on soybean yield and should be promoted for their positive environmental benefits.