Efficacy of Cover Crops on Weed Suppression, Wheat Yield, and Water Conservation in Winter Wheat–Sorghum–Fallow

Mesbah, Abdel O.; Nilahyane, Abdelaziz; Ghimire, Binod; Beck, Leslie L.; Ghimire, Rajan

doi:10.2135/cropsci2018.12.0753

Cited by 32 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Mesbah et al. (2019) from the same experiment reported that cover crop biomass returned to the soil in 2017 was greater with oat (2,873 kg ha −1 ), POmix (3,077 kg ha −1 ), POCmix (2,816 kg ha −1 ), and SSmix (2,482 kg ha −1 ) than pea (1,445 kg ha −1 ) and canola (1,847 kg ha −1 ). Pea matures early and uses less soil water than cereals leaving more soil water available for the following crops or fallow period (Lenssen, Johnson, & Carlson, 2007), which may stimulate microbial activity and greater CO 2 –C fluxes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cover crop effects on soil carbon dioxide emissions in a semiarid cropping system

Nilahyane

Ghimire

Thapa

et al. 2020

Agrosystems Geosci & Env

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Cover crops improve soil health and environmental quality by enhancing soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration and nutrient cycling in agroecosystems. This study evaluated the effect of cover crops on soil CO2–C emissions, temperature, and water content during cover crop growth from April to October, 2017 and 2018. Treatments included fallow, pea (Pisum sativum L.), oat (Avena sativa L.), canola (Brassica napus L.), pea–oat (POmix), pea–canola (PCmix), pea–oat–canola (POCmix), and POC–hairy vetch (Vicia villosa L.)–forage radish (Raphanus sativus L.)–barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) (six species mixture; SSmix). The CO2–C emissions were monitored weekly from April to October each year using a portable infrared‐gas analyzer. Seasonal changes in CO2–C emissions varied with cover crops and peaked as soil temperature and water content following precipitation events. Average CO2–C emissions across sampling dates was 46–70% greater under pea than under fallow, canola, and POmix in 2017, but not different among cover crops in 2018. Although the emissions were higher than fallow, canola and POmix plots had lower CO2–C emissions than other cover crops. Pea as sole cover crop or in mixtures (PCmix, POCmix, SSmix) increased CO2–C emissions and microbial activity whereas canola and POmix mixture reduced the emissions during the period with higher precipitation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cover crop effects on soil carbon dioxide emissions in a semiarid cropping system

Nilahyane

Ghimire

Thapa

et al. 2020

Agrosystems Geosci & Env

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“…We included the cost of only one application of the herbicide in the fallow plot during the cover crop growing period. Mesbah et al (2019) demonstrate weed suppression with cover cropping, which can reduce 1-2 more sprays during summer and change the relative effects of cover crops. Finally, the analytical framework used in this study has its own set of limitations, including the concavity of utility function and risk bounds that requires caution in generalizing the results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Studies at the same experimental location revealed that cover crops have increased soil biological activity, improved soil organic matter accumulation, and suppressed weeds [44,47]. We did not analyze the potential long-term economic benefits of these aspects.…”

Section: Secondary Benefits Subsidy and The Role Of Agricultural Rementioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Cover Crop on Farm Profitability and Risk in the Southern High Plains

Acharya

Ghimire

et al. 2019

Sustainability

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Cover cropping has been promoted for improving soil health and environmental quality in the southern High Plains (SHP) region of the United States. The SHP is one of the more productive areas of the country and covers a large landmass, including parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. This region faces challenges in sustainable crop production due to declining water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer, the primary source of water for irrigated crop production. This study examines the impact of integrating cover crops in the winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L)-based rotations on farm profitability and risk in the SHP. The study combines experimental yield data with other secondary information, including market prices, to conduct simulation analysis and evaluate the risk involved in introducing cover crops in a wheat-fallow cropping system. The results show that, due to the additional monetary costs involved, none of the cover crop options is economically viable. However, when secondary benefits (erosion control and green nitrogen) or government subsidies are included in the analysis, one of the cover crop options (peas) dominates the fallow alternative. Moreover, when the secondary benefits and a government subsidy are combined, two cover crop alternatives (peas and oats) emerge as more profitable options than leaving land fallow. These results highlight the importance of agricultural research and extension programs that are making a concerted effort to develop more productive farming techniques and increase public awareness about the long-term benefits of adopting soil health management systems such as cover cropping in the SHP region.nearly 50 percent [8][9][10][11]. If this trend continues, an additional 40 percent of the irrigated land in some areas of the southern High Plains (SHP) will likely be converted to dryland farming soon. The SHP region covers a vast area (126,470 km 2 ), including parts of New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma, and is one of the most significant dryland cropping areas of the country [12]. Intensive farming and poor soil health management practices in this semiarid environment have depleted 30-60 percent of soil organic carbon (SOC), reduced biodiversity by up to 60 percent, degraded most soil quality attributes, and reduced crop productivity [13][14][15]. Additionally, recent rainfall trends show that more than 60 percent of the precipitation occurs during the fallow period of typical crop-fallow rotation systems, and precipitation storage efficiency during the fallow period is relatively low. Climate change-induced fluctuations in rainfall are expected to make the region much drier and substantially increase crop yield variability [16].Cropping systems under dryland or very limited-irrigated condition often use cereal only rotations, a long fallow-period between crops, repeated tillage for weed control, and dust-mulch effects that may potentially result in higher soil moisture retention. For instance, in the dryland wheat-fallow system, the land is left bare for nine to thirteen months to co...

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“…Weed suppression can be achieved by CC due to several reasons including the amount of CC biomass produced (Hodgdon, Warren, Smith, & Sideman, 2016; Mesbah, Nilahyane, Ghimire, Beck, & Ghimire, 2019), decreased light availability resulting from canopy coverage of CC (Masilionyte et al., 2017; Teasdale & Mohler, 2000), allelopathic inhibition of weed germination (Mwaja, Masiunas, & Weston, 1995; Reiss, Fomsgaard, Mathiassen, & Kudsk, 2018), and competition for water and nutrients (Blanco‐Canqui et al., 2015). One of the major factors that dictates weed control is biomass production of CC.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cover crop diversity for weed suppression and crop yield in a corn–soybean production system in Tennessee

Sabbagh

Jagadamma

Duncan

et al. 2020

Agrosystems Geosci & Env

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Weed communities may potentially reduce row‐crop yields resulting in a loss of revenue for producers. Studies have reported a decrease in the efficacy of chemical methods of weed control due to increased weed resistance. With the goal of reducing reliance on chemical weed control and promoting sustainable crop production in mind, we evaluated different winter cover crop (CC) types (single‐, double‐, and multi‐species) and CC planting methods (broadcasting vs. drilling) on CC and weed groundcover and row‐crop yield in a no‐till corn (Zea mays L.)–soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] rotation system in Tennessee from 2013 to 2017. Our results showed that winter CC reduced spring weed ground coverage by 64–76% compared with winter fallow with no herbicide application. A five‐species CC mixture increased soybean yields by 6 to 8.5% across seeding method treatments compared with other CC treatments and winter fallow. This yield increase was more visible in a drought year. Corn, grown in years with normal weather patterns, did not show a yield response to CC types. From this study, cover cropping was found to be an effective strategy for weed control compared with leaving the field fallow without herbicide application following row‐crop harvest; however, no consistent species‐specific trends were observed on weed suppression and row‐crop yield. Future research should focus on understanding CC species composition and biomass production in double‐ and multi‐species mixtures from this field experiment to draw robust conclusions on agronomic responses of individual CC species and planting methods.

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Efficacy of Cover Crops on Weed Suppression, Wheat Yield, and Water Conservation in Winter Wheat–Sorghum–Fallow

Cited by 32 publications

References 60 publications

Cover crop effects on soil carbon dioxide emissions in a semiarid cropping system

Cover crop effects on soil carbon dioxide emissions in a semiarid cropping system

Effect of Cover Crop on Farm Profitability and Risk in the Southern High Plains

Cover crop diversity for weed suppression and crop yield in a corn–soybean production system in Tennessee

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