Tillage and Cover Cropping Effects on Soil Properties.

Cover crops have been heralded for their potential to retain nutrients in the field, as well as improve soil physical properties, however, the adoption and benefits of cover crops within the Midwestern Corn-Belt remains limited.   This ongoing study monitors the potential benefits of integrating cover crops into corn-soybean rotation in Urbana, Illinois.  The experimental layout was a split-block arrangement of treatments of tillage and cover cropping with 4 replications within each phase of the corn-soybean rotation each year. Blocks were split with till and no-till treatments, with 6 levels of cover crop treatments, differing based on the following crop. Hairy vetch [Vicia villosa] and red clover [Trifolium pretense] occur as treatments only in plots preceding corn, with cereal rye [Secale cereal] and spring oats [Avena sativa] growing only before soybean crops.  The effects of rapeseed [Brassica napus], daikon radish [Raphanus sativus], and annual ryegrass [Lolium multiflorum] are tested before both corn and soybean, along with an unseeded control plot.  Sampling was conducted for physical properties of bulk density, water aggregate stability, and penetration resistance, as well as chemical properties of total carbon, pH, plant available nitrogen, and phosphorus in 2014 & 2015.  Biomass samples and stand counts were also taken from actively growing cover crop.  Results shown are from the ’13-’14 and ’14-’15 cover crop growing periods of this five year study.