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ARS Home » Plains Area » Mandan, North Dakota » Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #152176
Title: CROP SEQUENCING TO SYNERGIZE CROP GROWTH

Author
item Tanaka, Donald
item Anderson, Randal
item Rao, Srinivas

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/17/2003
Publication Date: 10/25/2003
Citation: Tanaka, D.L., Anderson, R.L., Rao, S.C. 2003. Crop sequencing to synergize crop growth. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Proceedings. Paper No. S06-tanaka757311-oral.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Crop-fallow systems have been a way of life for man producers throughout the Great Plains. The type of crops grown in these somewhat monoculture systems were regional. In the northern Great Plains, spring cereals were better adapted to climate conditions than winter or summer crops; therefore, spring cereal-fallow systems developed, while in the central and southern Great Plains winter or summer crops were better adapted to climate conditions and winter cereal-fallow systems developed. Maintaining crop residues on the soil surface during fallow was a key factor in improving soil water storage, but fallow efficiencies seldom exceeded 40%. Intensifying cropping patterns to reduce fallow was on strategy to make more efficient use of precipitation. When more than two crops are included in a cropping system, crop sequence or cropping pattern becomes critical. There is a need throughout the Great Plains to determine crop sequences that take advantage of synergism among crops to improve water-use efficiency. Soil water content was similar at winter wheat planting in the fall for continuous wheat, with and without pigionpea, when pigeonpea was grown between wheat crops in the Southern Great Plains. In the central Great Plains, proso millet after corn resulted in 23% greater water-use efficiency than resulted in a 30% greater water-use efficiency than spring wheat after fallow.