Student/presenter: Lauren Selph, Ph.D. Student, Soil Science
Format: Oral presentation
Title: Crop rotation and cover crop effects on soil moisture in a transitional organic system
Lauren E. Selph1, Katie L. Lewis1,2, and Paul B. DeLaune3
1Texas Tech University
2Texas A&M AgriLife Research – Lubbock, Texas
3Texas A&M AgriLife Research – Vernon, Texas
Water conservation is a top priority for organic producers in the southern high plains region of Texas. Crop rotation and cover crops have potential to influence soil moisture storage. This study seeks to investigate the influence of crop rotations (continuous cotton, cotton/peanut, cotton/sesame, and cotton/wheat/forage) and cover crops (fallow, rye at 17 and 34 kg/ha) on stored soil moisture in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, no differences were observed between cover crop treatments. Continuous cotton resulted in lower profile seasonal stored moisture than all crop rotations and significantly lower moisture than cotton/sesame and cotton/forage rotations. Stored soil moisture increased through cover crop termination and declined following crop planting. Significant differences in profile moisture between crop rotations were only observed on three of the five dates of measurement. Results in 2023 are expected to be comparable to 2022. Cover crops did not remove excess moisture compared to fallow and crop rotation resulted in conservation of water compared to continuous cotton. Intense weed pressure, tillage for cover crop termination, and crop failure had potential to influence moisture dynamics during the year of testing.