Wallaces Farmer

7 tips for better relay crops

Follow these steps for fertility, row spacing, weed control and more to boost success in relay intercropping.

Gil Gullickson, editor of Wallaces Farmer

November 15, 2024

1 Min Read
PLAN AHEAD: Planning is essential for a relay-intercropping system, where soybeans are planted into cereal rye.

Here are seven steps that can boost chances of success for soybeans planted into cereal rye in relay-intercropping systems, says Lucas De Bruin, an Iowa Soybean Association research agronomist. Check out the following:

1. Fertilize cereal rye with nitrogen. De Bruin recommends applying 35 to 60 pounds per acre of N on rye in early spring. Exceeding this amount can lead to a large amount of biomass that cuts soybean yield potential.

2. Space soybeans 30 inches or wider. This width allows harvest equipment to run over fewer soybeans during rye harvest.

3. Apply herbicide. If needed, apply a herbicide after cereal rye harvest to clear late-emerging weeds in soybeans.

4. Understand water demands. Relay cropping is a high water-use system. Even with adequate early-season moisture, a dry July or August can squelch soybean yields.

5. Anticipate harvest complications. Perfectly straddling soybean rows can be difficult for combine tires and result in flattened soybeans. Soybean and rye head height may also vary across the field. Draper heads minimize losses when clipping rye heads above the soybean canopy.

6. Select varieties with higher relative maturity.  For every increase in relative maturity point, soybean yield loss was reduced by 0.8 bushel per acre in ISA trials. De Bruin notes that farmers who normally plant soybean varieties with a relative maturity rating of 2.5 may want to plant varieties with 2.8 to 3 in relay intercropping systems.

Related:Growing two crops together brings risks with rewards

7. Harvest rye as early in season as possible. For every day after rye was harvested, soybeans lost yield by an additional 0.9 bushel per acre in ISA trials.

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Rye

About the Author

Gil Gullickson

editor of Wallaces Farmer, Farm Progress

Gil Gullickson grew up on a farm that he now owns near Langford, S.D., and graduated with an agronomy degree from South Dakota State University. Earlier in his career, he spent 13 years as a Farm Progress editor, covering Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Gullickson is a widely respected and decorated ag journalist, earning the Agricultural Communicators Network writing award for Writer of the Year three times, and winning Story of the Year four times. He is a past winner of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists’ Food and Agriculture Organization Award for Food Security. He has served as president of both ACN and the North American Agricultural Journalists.

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