Did you plant soybeans into a lot of residue this year? This practice is becoming more and more common all across the country.

This soybean field has a cereal rye cover crop.

The picture on the right shows a field that beans were planted into on Monday of this week. While part of the field was rolled, the majority was planted into the standing cereal rye. As you can see, there is a huge amount of cereal rye straw both on the ground and still standing. There should be no worries, right? The question is: what is going to happen to all that residue by this fall, and even next spring for the next crop? Will it break down and be easy to manage? What is happening to the nutrients that that cover crop has sequestered?

The answer is that the cereal rye is going to break down, slowing through the growing season and helping feed the soybeans. Why not help the breakdown with an application of Nutrapathic™ Liquid Bacteria Concentrate (LBC) and Soil Restorer (SR), along with one or two quarts of Sugar E-Boost^®? These can be added with your herbicide application! The LBC and SR add beneficial bacteria and soil mycorrhizae that will aid in the breakdown of residue. The Sugar E-Boost will provide extra food to the bacteria to get them off to a good start and will provide energy to the soybean plants, helping them be more efficient in their nutrient uptake.

Why is this so important? A ton of cereal rye straw has approximately 12 units of N, 3 units of P, 22 units of K, and 2 units of Sulfur. The faster that you can get this to break down and get to your growing crop, the better that crop will do. We have been promoting LBC and SR, along with the Sugar E-Boost, in our Nutrient Recycling Program for a long time. We see better root systems, healthier plants, and better yields where the program is used. This would be a great way to get part of the program going and help YOU take advantage of the nutrients that are in that cover crop residue. All without a separate trip across your field.

Contact me at jviertel@soilserviceinc.com for more information or to get started today.