By Dusty Sonnenberg, CCA, Ohio Field Leader
Soybean growers across Ohio, and especially farmers enrolling in the new H2Ohio program, will be interested in research conducted by Keeley Overmyer, investigating possible impacts from a crop rotation with continuous soybeans and the use of cover crops. Overmyer’s research was funded by a grant from the Ohio Soybean Council and Soybean Checkoff.
According to a survey conducted by the North Central Soybean Research Program, there has been a steady increase in the percentage of Ohio fields with soybeans following soybeans. In 2014, only 8% of the soybean fields were in a continuous soybean system. Just 4 years later, that number has climbed to 17% of the fields in Ohio with soybeans following soybeans. According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, 718,000 acres of cover crops were planted in Ohio. Percentages have continuously climbed with soybean fields having a cover crop planted either prior to the soybean crop, or following the soybeans.
