Abstract
Corn residue grazing can provide a valuable and cost effective means of feeding cattle and is a common practice in most corn producing states. Mechanical means of residue removal (baling) is also often practiced as a means of harvesting cattle feed. However, there are concerns about the effects of management practices that remove crop residue on soil processes such as compaction, aggregation, and N cycling. To study these concerns, an experiment with four treatments including control, light grazing, heavy grazing, and baling was carried out for 5 years at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Water Resources Field Laboratory near Brule, NE. Soil penetration resistance was measured after 3, 4, and 5 years of residue removal. Wind erodible fraction, mean weight diameter of dry aggregates, and soil total N were measured after 5 years. Corn yields were determined throughout the study. Results indicate that light grazing showed little or no difference from the no residue removal treatment, but heavy grazing and baled treatments often had higher penetration resistance, indicating that high rates of residue removal may increase risks of soil compaction. However, compaction did not appear to be cumulative over time. No significant differences were observed in wind erodible fraction and dry aggregate mean weight diameter. However, there were trends that suggest heavy grazing and baling may, in the long term, reduce dry aggregate stability, increasing wind erosion potential. Results also show that in the surface 0–2.5 cm grazing animals may increase soil total N and that baling residue may decrease soil N content. There was no impact on corn yields throughout the study. Overall, corn residue grazing and baling appear to have little or no adverse effects on soil compaction, aggregation, or nitrogen cycling after 5 years.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record, shown for indexing and research. Copyright remains with the authors or the publisher. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 11
Claim · model-written summary
Light grazing showed little or no difference from no residue removal.
- Taxon
- corn
Zea mays subsp. mayst0 - Treatment
- light grazinge0
- Outcome
- little or no differencee0
- Direction
- little or no differencee0
- Comparator
- no residue removal treatmente0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“light grazing showed little or no difference from the no residue removal treatment”
t0“corn residue”
Claim · model-written summary
Heavy grazing increased soil penetration resistance.
- Taxon
- cornZea mays subsp. mayst0
- Treatment
- heavy grazinge0
- Outcome
- penetration resistancee0
- Direction
- highere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“heavy grazing and baled treatments often had higher penetration resistance”
t0“corn residue”
Claim · model-written summary
Baling increased soil penetration resistance.
- Taxon
- cornZea mays subsp. mayst0
- Treatment
- baled treatmentse0
- Outcome
- penetration resistancee0
- Direction
- highere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“heavy grazing and baled treatments often had higher penetration resistance”
t0“corn residue”
Claim · model-written summary
Compaction did not appear cumulative over time.
- Taxon
- cornZea mays subsp. mayst0
- Outcome
- compactione0
- Direction
- did not appear to be cumulativee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“compaction did not appear to be cumulative over time”
t0“corn residue”
Claim · model-written summary
Wind erodible fraction did not differ significantly among treatments.
- Taxon
- cornZea mays subsp. mayst0
- Outcome
- wind erodible fractione0
- Direction
- No significant differencese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“No significant differences were observed in wind erodible fraction and dry aggregate mean weight diameter.”
t0“corn residue”
Claim · model-written summary
Dry aggregate mean weight diameter did not differ significantly.
- Taxon
- cornZea mays subsp. mayst0
- Outcome
- dry aggregate mean weight diametere0
- Direction
- No significant differencese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“No significant differences were observed in wind erodible fraction and dry aggregate mean weight diameter.”
t0“corn residue”
Claim · model-written summary
Heavy grazing showed a trend toward reduced dry aggregate stability.
- Taxon
- cornZea mays subsp. mayst0
- Treatment
- heavy grazinge0
- Outcome
- dry aggregate stabilitye0
- Direction
- reducee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“there were trends that suggest heavy grazing and baling may, in the long term, reduce dry aggregate stability”
t0“corn residue”
Claim · model-written summary
Baling showed a trend toward reduced dry aggregate stability.
- Taxon
- cornZea mays subsp. mayst0
- Treatment
- balinge0
- Outcome
- dry aggregate stabilitye0
- Direction
- reducee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“there were trends that suggest heavy grazing and baling may, in the long term, reduce dry aggregate stability”
t0“corn residue”
Claim · model-written summary
Grazing animals may increase surface soil total nitrogen.
- Taxon
- cornZea mays subsp. mayst0
- Treatment
- grazing animalse0
- Outcome
- soil total Ne0
- Direction
- increasee0
- Qualifier
- surface 0–2.5 cme0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“in the surface 0–2.5 cm grazing animals may increase soil total N”
t0“corn residue”
Claim · model-written summary
Baling residue may decrease soil nitrogen content.
- Taxon
- cornZea mays subsp. mayst0
- Treatment
- baling residuee0
- Outcome
- soil N contente0
- Direction
- decreasee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“baling residue may decrease soil N content”
t0“corn residue”
Claim · model-written summary
Residue removal had no impact on corn yields during the study.
- Taxon
- cornZea mays subsp. mayse0
- Treatment
- corn residuet0
- Outcome
- corn yieldse0
- Direction
- no impacte0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“There was no impact on corn yields throughout the study.”
t0“corn residue”
The same questions in other papers
Zea mays subsp. mays · yield · Zea mays (maize)Results differ
95 papers in the same direction as this paper · 196 in the opposite direction
- positive
- positive
- positive
288 papers more in this group
See all 292 papers →grazing · disease · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
1 paper in the same direction as this paper · 1 in the opposite direction
- positive
- negative
grazing · nutrient: content · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
2 papers in the same direction as this paper · 2 in the opposite direction
- no effect
- no effect
- positive
1 paper more in this group
See all 5 papers →grazing · soil: physics · Zea mays (maize)Results agree
3 papers in the same direction as this paper
- no effect
- no effect
- negative
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.