Corn harvest is winding down, and soybean harvest is well underway in Mississippi. Even though this signals the end of the 2013 production season, activities in preparation for the 2014 growing season should be next on the agenda.

Below are major activities/practices/decisions that should be placed on the calendar in preparation for the 2014 crop.

Nematode Sampling

Sampling for nematodes should occur soon after harvest. With soybeans now being rotated with corn and cotton or being grown on soils previously cropped with cotton, analysis of soil samples should be conducted to determine if soybean cyst nematode, root knot nematode, and reniform nematode are present in soils that will be cropped to soybeans. This knowledge will determine management options that should be used to reduce their detrimental effect. These options are described in the blog and article on this website.

Soil Sampling for Nutrient Status

With the consistently high soybean and corn yields that are being harvested in Mississippi, mining of soil nutrients will be increasing. Thus, soils that produce these high yields will have lost considerable amounts of nutrients during a crop year. Intense monitoring of nutrient removal is required in these production systems to ensure that necessary nutrients are replenished before the next crop cycle in order to maintain nutrient levels that will be adequate to maintain these high yields. Information about proper sampling protocol is provided in the Soil Fertility Sampling for High Yields blog on this website. Important points to consider are:

• Sampling for nutrient levels is best done when soil moisture level is suitable for tillage.


• For spring-planted crops such as corn and soybeans, collect the samples soon after harvest in the fall.


• Test each field at least once every 3 years. In the case of fields that have a biennial rotation of crops, sample every 2 or 4 years following the same rotational crop at each sampling time. This provides a consistent basis for comparing fields and detecting trends over time.


• To ensure sampling consistency of nutrient removal trends across years, sample at the same time of year and following the same crop in a rotational system.


• Soil tests should be used mainly to test for phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and pH.

Tillage

Fall tillage will destroy most soybean residue remaining after harvest. If tillage is not necessary to correct a physical soil condition or problem, producers should avoid all fall tillage. Two articles on this website (Tillage for Soybean Production and Managing Crop Residues) should be consulted for detailed information about how these two issues should be considered together when decisions about what type of tillage, if any, should be conducted in the fall.

A linked article on this website provides information for producers who may be considering deep tillage of nonirrigated sites. Again, this decision should be considered along with the destruction of some soybean residue that will occur. If deep tillage is determined to be an option, it should only be conducted on nonirrigated sites when the soil is dry.

Weed Control/Management

With the present and increasing challenge of controlling HR weeds, fall weed control measures should be considered to provide an edge going into the following growing season.

Tillage is always an option in the fall, but the resulting destruction of residue will offset some of the positive effect of controlling weeds that will have emerged at the time of tillage.

Residual herbicides applied in the fall can help control many winter weeds and weeds such as marestail that develop strong root systems through the winter. Length of weed control depends on the type of herbicide used, but several residuals provide control into late spring of the following year.

Dr. Jason Bond at the DREC, Stoneville, provides information about controlling HR Italian ryegrass in the fall.

Dr. Tom Eubank at the DREC, Stoneville, provides information about controlling HR Palmer pigweed in the fall.

Articles in the Weed Control section of MSSOY provide a list of herbicides, both burndown and residual, that can be used for fall weed control.

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Recently, I posted White Papers on MSSOY that deal with Cover Crops and Managing Crop Residues. Since those postings, Dupont Pioneer has published articles on Managing Corn Residue and Managing cover crops in corn and soybean production systems. These articles have useful information that supplements that in the two MSSOY articles.

Composed by Larry G. Heatherly, Sept. 2013, larryheatherly@bellsouth.net