Enhanced Grain Yields with Stripper Header Stubble Management.

Differences in crop residue quality can impact the amount of soil water storage in semi-arid no-till systems of the West Central Great Plains. Using a stripper header as opposed to a conventional-reel type header to harvest small grains impacts the quality of the crop residue left in the field.   Primarily with a stripper header the residue height and the integrity of the standing residue is greater. Because water is always at a deficit in this region of the US Great Plains this difference in soil water storage during the non-cropped portions of the year can really impact crop yields.  Here we will present crop yields and soil water measurements from a  6-year study focused on quantifying the value of stripper header management versus conventional  header management. The data was collected from  a 4-year, no-till managed rotation of wheat-sorghum-millet fallow. All phases of the four year rotation were present each year  and all plots were replicated 8 times. Four replications were managed using a stripper header and four replications were managed with a conventional header.  In this experiment over a 5 year period, the average increase in grain yields with the stripper header averaged 336 kg ha^-1  more grain which corresponds to a 11% increase in yield just from stubble management. The increase was mostly due to increases in measured soil water storage with the stripper header managed plots.