Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Mandan, North Dakota » Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #432769
Research Project: Transdisciplinary Research that Improves the Productivity and Sustainability of Northern Great Plains Agroecosystems and the Well-Being of the Communities They Serve

Location: Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory

Title: Crop and Soil Responses to 24 years of Wheat Residue Removal and Tillage

Author
item Liebig, Mark
item Halvorson, Jonathan
item Clemensen, Andrea
item Hendrickson, John
item Archer, David
item Tanaka, Donald

Submitted to: Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/13/2026
Publication Date: 8/11/2026
Citation: Liebig, M.A., Halvorson, J.J., Clemensen, A.K., Hendrickson, J.R., Archer, D.W., Tanaka, D.L. 2026. Crop and Soil Responses to 24 years of Wheat Residue Removal and Tillage. Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment. 9,e70419. https://doi.org/10.1002/agg2.70419.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/agg2.70419

Interpretive Summary: Leaving crop residue on fields helps protect soil and retain nutrients, while removing it provides material for other uses. A 24-year study in North Dakota tested spring wheat grown under minimum and no-tillage, with and without straw removal. Results showed that retaining wheat straw on fields gave better soil cover and improved soil structure, but crop yields stayed the same whether residue was retained or removed. Overall, removing residue did not hurt spring wheat production but slightly reduced soil quality.

Technical Abstract: Retaining crop residue on agricultural land mitigates soil erosion and conserves nutrients, but its removal generates a valuable commodity for competing uses in agriculture and industry. Understanding long-term effects of crop residue removal on crop performance and soil condition is essential to guide management decisions regarding recommended practices, particularly in arid and semiarid regions where limited precipitation contributes to low levels of non-harvested aboveground biomass. This report shares soil and crop outcomes over a 24-year period from a continuous spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production system with and without straw removal under minimum and no-tillage. Treatments were included in a long-term experiment near Mandan, ND USA on non-sloping land (0-1%) and Temvik-Wilton silt loam soils (Fine-silty, mixed, superactive, frigid Typic and Pachic Haplustolls). Mean soil coverage by residue was significantly greater with straw retention compared to straw removal (80 vs. 72%; P = 0.025), and no-tillage provided greater mean soil coverage by residue compared to minimum tillage (87 vs. 66%; P = 0.004). Grain and straw production, however, were not affected by residue management or tillage treatments. Among soil properties measured, only water-stable aggregates were affected by treatments at 0-7.6 cm, with values greater with straw retention compared to straw removal (31 vs. 22%; P = 0.044). Degradation-related attributes of wheat straw, coupled with treatment features that limited N inputs and soil disturbance in a monoculture system, likely contributed observed outcomes in this study.