Managing Cover Crops, Crop Rotation, and Poultry Manure to Increase Soil Health.

Public interest has been stimulated by increasing awareness that soil is a critically important component of the earth’s biosphere, functioning not only in the production of food and fiber but also in the maintenance of local, regional, and global environmental quality. A healthy soil is also the basis of agricultural and of natural plant communities. We investigated a management practice that integrates crop rotation, animal manure utilization, and use of winter cover crop to improve soil health and crop yield. Crop rotation involved corn and soybeans that received chemical fertilizer (UAN) or poultry litter to provide 212 kg/ha of plant available N to corn but only half the amount (106 kg/ha) was applied to soybeans. After harvesting corn or soybeans, cover crops, a mixture of cereal rye, crimson clover, and hairy vetch was planted as winter cover crop. Corn grain yield was impacted more by cover crop and poultry litter than soybeans yield. Cover crop dry matter yield was greater for control treatment in 2013 and for UAN treatment in 2011. In general cover crop performed better when planted after corn than soybeans.