Corn Yields Benefit in Rotations with Cotton
2007
Arnold Bruns, H. | Pettigrew, William T. | Meredith, William R. | Stetina, Salliana R.
Continuous cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) was the primary crop for the Mississippi Delta until recently. Corn (Zea mays L.) is now grown on about 1 million acres in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, usually in rotation with cotton. This research evaluated corn's performance in a four-year, furrow-irrigated rotation with cotton at Stoneville, MS. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with a split-plot arrangement of treatments replicated eight times. Whole plots were cropping sequences assigned at random. Cropping sequences were continuous cotton, continuous corn, corn-cotton-corn-cotton, or cotton-corn-corn-cotton. Four adapted corn hybrids and cotton cultivars were grown as sub-plots beginning in 2000 to 2003. Corn grain yields were greater following cotton than continous corn in 2001 (169 bu/acre vs. 160 bu/acre) and 2002 (126 bu/acre vs. 117 bu/acre). Grain yields from continuous corn differed among years but with no consistency. Hybrids differed in yield among all years but no consistency in these data was noted. Test weights for continuous corn differed among years but were not below the requirement for US No. 2 yellow corn. Weights of 100 kernels did not differ among years or treatments. Economics dictate cropping sequences but corn can benefit from following cotton in rotation.
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