For all crops, initial establishment is as important as fertility in maximum yield. The same principles adhere to cover crop growth, with earlier establishment and good seed to soil contact necessary for good coverage.
Delaware Agronomy Blog
University of Delaware Cooperative Extension
Category: Planting (page 2 of 3)
To update our recommendations for soybean population, the Delaware Soybean Board sponsored a study of five different planting populations (60, 90, 120, 150, and180,000 seeds per acre), two row spacings (15 and 30”), and included irrigated and rainfed treatments under variable rate irrigation. Overall, no differences in yield were observed by population, while 15″ rows boosted yields by 10.6 bushels and irrigation boosted yields by 25.9 bushels.
Project Summary
Soybeans (maturity group 4.3) were planted at the UD Warrington Irrigation Research farm in May 2022 and harvested in November 2022 with a plot combine. The results were analyzed statistically as a randomized complete block design with three factors (population*row-spacing*irrigation) with means separation by Fisher’s LDS (alpha = 0.1).
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Emerging corn in a rye cover crop
While it may not seem much warmer than it was in 2020, having steady days above 50°F had provided much faster emergence than last year. In 2019 we were getting about 10 growing degree days (GDD) per day, while now we are seeing 15-20. The threshold for emergence is about 100-120 GDD, which we have reached for most fields planted between April 15 and April 22nd (Table 1). In 2020, we had only reached half of that (60-90 statewide) over the same time period.
Jamie Taraila, Jarrod Miller, and Amy Shober
With April and warmer temperatures finally here, it is time to think about cover crop termination. This spring, we expect lower cover crop biomass at burndown due to the cool, wet winter conditions that delayed growth, particularly small grains. Therefore, termination timing decisions are very important this year. We must recognize that there are pros and cons of early and late cover crop termination and make decisions that maximize benefits.
Figure 1: Vetch cover crop before spring corn planting.
Over the past three years we have been planting winter wheat seeding rates ranging from 900,000 up to 2.2 million seeds per acre. Averaged over the last three seasons (2018-2020), yields ranged from 85-93 bu/acre, with some differences between seeding rates (Figure 1).
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