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Southeast WI | Actually, no you dont need beans to reduce residue but it takes YEARS for the soil biology to catch up. I have one small field I run my starter type trial on. Been cont corn since 2000 I believe. Took till 10 years before the bugs caught up and really started taking residue down. At about years 5-8 I really thought i would have to quit cont corn because of the massive residue. Now its no different than 2nd year corn for the most part.
What keeps me from years of cont corn is rootworn control. If we go more than a 3rd year of corn the rw level gets so high it overwhelms the bt trait. I hate insecticide so most of my fields see 2 yrs corn one year beans which keeps bean diseases to a minimum. Heavy ground c-c is strip tilled, light soils straight notill. | |
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Continuous Corn
