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| There such strips along county C65 between US 71 and IA 110 just south of the lake at Storm Lake, Iowa. Probably 24 rows IIRC. At least nearly every time I've been in that area, I've noticed them.
In strips the outside rows of corn do so much better that lots of test strips only the inner rows are counted because the outer rows get more light and probably more rain. It could be that with alternating strips of beans and corn that the outer corn rows also benefit from nitrogen gathered by the adjacent bean rows. That might not benefit those outer bean rows added to the shadowing from the taller corn and competition of the two crop's roots for moisture and other nutrients.
It might be that intercropping bean rows halfway between the corn rows would enhance the corn though harvesting and separating the crops would be a real difficult task. Might be a spring cover crop of a clover would be more profitable. Definitely there's room for experiment and surely some experiments have been made. Corn would suffer in the battle for moisture, but benefit from the nitrogen. Would it be more profitable than buying chemical nitrogen? I used to put half my crop years into alfalfa to grow my own N for corn and grew decent corn, but the hay income was much less so the total profits significantly less than buying and applying 32% and growing corn every other year alternating with beans.
Strips have to be a pain to make because the strips would be planted a month apart around here with significantly different fertilization and the corn wold be up when planting the beans to the gaps left in the corn have to be fairly precise to fit the bean planter in without damaging the corn.
Gerald J. | |
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Alternating rows of corn and beans
