Crop residue is a source of nutrients for the following season’s crop, but it has yet to be documented just how much of which nutrients the residue provides. This project will track the release of nitrogen (N), potassium (K) and sulfur (S) from corn, wheat and cereal rye (as a cover crop) residue for soybean uptake. It will also assess how tillage and biologicals influence nutrient release (how fast and how much) from residue for soybean uptake.

• Current high-yielding corn hybrids and soybean varieties, as well as cover crops, are generating larger amounts of residue on fields after harvest. Managing residue to repurpose nutrients from residue for the following crop is a challenge because quantifiable data is lacking about which nutrients and how much of them are made available to the following crop as residue decomposes. Tillage and biologicals that help break down residue also impact how quickly and the amount of nutrients that can be made available.

• Understanding how many of each nutrient likely remain based on type and timing of residue decomposition will help farmers create more efficient nutrient management plans.

• Dr. Andrew Margenot, Associate Professor, UIUC
• Dr. Connor Sible, Postdoctoral Research Associate, UIUC
• Michael Douglass, Senior Research Specialist, UIUC
• Dr. Chongyang (“Oliver”) Li, Research Scientist, UIUC

• Urbana

Dr. Andrew Margenot
Associate Professor
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
217-300-7059
margenot@illinois.edu