Agronomic Practices Impact On Soybean Yield Under Different Managements.

Soybean yields are affected by environmental conditions as well as agronomic practices such us variety selection, nutrition management, plant density, etc. Accurate information about economic and productive impacts of each of these practices is important for farmer’s decision making. The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of different management practices on grain yield under two different management systems: High yield potential and low yield potential. Trial was conducted in 2012/2013 in the experimental farm of the Universidad de Rosario in Zavalla, Santa Fe, Argentina. The trial was done in 4 row microplots, 5.5 m length and 0.52 m row spacing with 4 replications. The effect of adding a management practice to a low yield potential management or the omission of management practice to a high yield potential management was evaluated. The management practices that were evaluated are nutrition management, variety selection, irrigation and fungicide application. High yield potential management showed a negative response to the subtraction of sulfur and zinc fertilizer. Low yield potential management showed a yield increase when sulfur and zinc was added. However, yield increase in the low potential management was relatively smaller than the yield decrease in the high yield management. There was an important yield response to the addition of irrigation to a low yield potential management. This response was relatively higher than the negative effect of subtracting the irrigation to the high yield potential management. Standard soybean variety showed a higher yield under high yield potential management compares to the “elite” variety. However, the elite variety presented a higher yield under low potential conditions. Based on these results we conclude that the impact of particular management practices is influenced by yield potential defined by  crop management strategies.