Trade‐Offs in Cereal Rye Management Strategies Prior to Organically Managed Soybean

Abstract

Core Ideas A field experiment was conducted to compare cereal rye management strategies. Roller‐crimping cereal rye reduced labor requirements and increased soil health. Harvesting cereal rye for ryelage maximized profitability. Spring moisture affects soybean yield in roller‐crimped systems. Three cereal rye (Secale cereale L.) management strategies for organic soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] production were compared in terms of their agronomic, soil health, and economic benefits. In central New York in 2014–2015 and again in 2015–2016, we compared (i) a “No‐cover” control treatment, in which bare soil was plowed prior to planting soybean, (ii) a “Plow‐down” treatment with cereal rye plowed at jointing stage prior to planting soybean, (iii) a “Ryelage” treatment with cereal rye harvested for forage and plowed prior to planting soybean, and (iv) a “Roll‐down” treatment with cereal rye roller‐crimped prior to no‐till planting soybean. Water infiltration and soil respiration were greater in the Roll‐down treatment compared with the No‐cover treatment; however, weed biomass in soybean was greatest in the Roll‐down treatment. Soybean yield did not differ between treatments in 2015, but yields were lower in the Roll‐down treatment in 2016, which was likely due to dry conditions in May and June. Practices used in the Roll‐down system required the least amount of labor, but harvesting cereal rye for ryelage and then using tillage before growing organic soybean maximized profitability. Our results show soil health improvement, labor reductions, and enhanced profitability from growing cereal rye before organic soybean. However, no single cover crop management strategy provided all of these benefits. More research is needed to better understand the effects of precipitation at different times, and how management can be improved to overcome trade‐offs between strategies.