Do row crops benefit from cultivation?
In the past, tillage and row crop cultivation were integral parts of the weed control program. Producers often said the crop responded to cultivation to the extent that you could see a growth difference overnight. In low fertility soils, this response was typically from the release and oxidation of nutrients tied up in the soil and its organic materials (a breaking down and mining of the soil). Today, however, most weed control programs use some sort of herbicide application, usually a pre-emergence at planting time and, quite often, a postemergence treatment. Fertility programs are better and producers wonder if row crop cultivation is needed, even if the crop does not have weeds. Over 20 years of research at the Rogers Memorial Farm, east of Lincoln, showed no yield benefit from cultivation of soybeans in no-till, except for one year when there was a shattercane problem. Over the same 20 years, cultivation of no-till grain sorghum averaged about a 7 bu/A yield loss except in two year
