Selecting pre-crops for winter wheat

Authors: Nawa Raj Dhamala, Georg Carlson

Problem: Using high levels of nitrogen fertilizers in wheat crops can cause negative environmental impacts, such as nutrient leaching and contamination of local and ground water supplies or greenhouse gas emission.  Additionally, nitrogen fertilizers are costly for farmers. However, nitrogen stress can cause problems with yield losses and lower quality grains. 

Solution: A pre-crop is any crop grown before a succeeding crop within a rotation. Pre-crops can be selected to improve nitrogen nutrition and soil structure for the subsequent crop. Using appropriate pre-crops can reduce the need for water and nitrogen fertilizer inputs by fixing atmospheric N (in the case of legume pre-crops) and building soil organic matter for moisture retention and better soil structure.

zenodo.org: Selecting pre-crops for winter wheat