Field Check: The Tradeoffs of Planting Green

“I like seeding soybeans green into growing winter rye for a variety of reasons. I think trafficability and weed control are much better with 40 or 50 pounds of rye growing in the field. The tradeoff is that the rye and the existing stubble keep the ground colder and wetter in some years, so the soybeans have a hard time getting going. My question is, is there any way to have warmer drier ground in the spring and reap the other benefits of planting green?” - Nathan Neameyer, Farmer from Rolla, ND.

Dr. Lee Briese joins us to help answer Nathan’s question. Lee is a Crop Consultant covering Stutsman and Barnes Counties for Centrol Crop Consulting. Lee has been scouting fields and providing recommendations to farmers in North Dakota for over 20 years. Lee was featured in episode six of season one of Soil Sense.

Lee emphasizes that planting soybeans green into cereal rye does involve tradeoffs.

“It’s actually protecting the soil, reducing evaporation, and slowing down the heating of it, and that is a concern for him early season. But the rye is also doing the same thing to the weeds. It’s giving you weed control. It’s protecting your soil moisture loss. So it’s helping you with your seed bed and emergence. I think it’s one of those things at this point, I’m not sure we can have both.” - Dr. Lee Briese

Lee says there are things that can be done to optimize the benefits of the cereal rye without slowing down the soybeans as much early on, such as reducing the planted population of rye or a wider row spacing. He also cautions to make sure that the concern is not just a matter of perception.

“We know that soybean tolerates a lot of difficulty, especially early in the season....so the appearance of the soybeans early on is not necessarily a critical factor. We do know that early planted soybeans - early flowering soybeans - have a better chance at having higher yields. But for much of North Dakota, the yield is fairly directly correlated to ‘when do we get rain during flowering?’.” - Dr. Lee Briese

Lee also recommends that farmers check their soil temps well into the season when evaluating the tradeoffs of planting green into cereal rye.

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Soil Sense Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.