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CROPPING SYSTEMS

Soybean Production in a Kura Clover Living Mulch System

^a 2104 Agronomy Hall, Dep. of Agronomy, Ames, IA 50011
^b 1575 Linden Dr., Dep. of Agronomy, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706

^* Corresponding author (palle{at}iastate.edu).

Increased demand for soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] and high grain prices, have led many livestock producers to consider converting their perennial forage crop fields to production of row crops. The objective of this research was to determine whether established kura clover (Trifolium ambiguum M. Bieb.) can be suppressed and serve as living mulch for soybean production. The experiment was conducted in 2005 and 2006 near Arlington and Lancaster, WI. Five treatments were imposed in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Plots were subdivided for soybean grain harvest and for forage harvest. Treatments included (1) soybean planted into established kura clover that was killed by tillage (soybean control), or suppressed (2) two, (3) three, or (4) four times with herbicide, and (5) a kura clover control without any soybean. The soybean seed yield ranged from 1.53 to 5.10 Mg ha^–1 and the soybean forage yield ranged from 1.42 to 5.90 Mg ha^–1. Seed yield of soybean in the three living mulch treatments was 36% less than the mean yield of soybean in killed and tilled kura clover. There was a trend for increased yield with more herbicide applications although yield with four applications was significantly greater than with two applications in one site-year only. Monoculture kura clover always yielded more forage than soybean in living mulch. Soybean forage yield was inconsistently affected by treatments and yield. Results from this study showed no obvious advantages, but additional risk, associated with soybean production in kura clover living mulch.

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Received for publication August 30, 2008.