This project has several levels of deliverables. During the course of the experiment, there will be several project updates. The most common exposure this project will receive occurs at on-site field tours. This project has already been featured at several (~3x per year) events including trainings for consultants, Extension agents, and other researchers, as well as being featured at our field days and row crop tours. The ultimate products of this project include research reports and likely a scientific publication, but more importantly it will result in a decision support tool, likely linked with NDAWN (described below). This project has already helped immensely to shift the focus of soybean producers and advisors toward soil health conversations, especially on-site where these concepts are demonstrated.

The current recommendation is for rye cover crop termination at least 10 days before soybean planting.
One of the objectives of this study and other similar studies at our location was to determine whether
this recommendation should be updated.

The good news is there was no significant yield difference between plots where rye was terminated at
or before soybean planting in any of the trial years. On the other hand, in all three years there was a
large reduction in soybean yield when the rye was allowed to reach maturity within the soybean, to the
point of complete crop failure in 2018. There was substantial yield loss even in 2020, when
early-season soil moisture was abundant. Furthermore, in all three years, letting rye grow for
two weeks after soybean planting, resulted in statistically significant yield reduction. Letting the rye
grow for only 1 week also showed a decrease in yield for each of the years compared to terminating at
or before planting, but this difference was not statistically significant.

One reason that delayed termination works is that our rye water use it ultimately small compared to soybean. The reason for concern with this system is that peak rye water use has occurred around anthesis, which often coincides with the time that soybeans would normally be germinating. Timely rains during the duration of this project has meant that soybean yields were largely protected when 'planting green'. However, in prior years there have been severe yield penalties when planting green. The dataset for this trial has been instrumental in identifying water use patterns for each crop within this system, as we continue to develop the best recommendations for managing the winter rye to soybean relay system.