Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
In the northern Great Plains, fields are land rolled after the planting of annual pulse and forage crops to push rocks back into the soil to prevent damage to harvest equipment. Field trials were conducted in 2004 and 2005 to determine if land rolling influenced weed density or biomass associated with field pea, forage barley, and summer fallow. The experiment included two planting dates, conventional and delayed, for both barley and pea. Separate fallow plots were included with each planting date. Preplant tillage was conducted with a field cultivator for all treatments. Across years, crops, and planting dates, land rolling approximately doubled densities of tumble mustard, Russian thistle, kochia, and redroot pigweed shortly after crop emergence and at harvest compared with nonrolled. Land rolling increased density of early-emerging green foxtail but density at harvest was not affected. Wild oat densities were not influenced by rolling. Weed biomass at harvest was greater after land rolling than nonrolled. Land rolling after planting decreased subsequent pea yield by 330 kg/ha, but did not influence water use or water use efficiency. Land rolling is advantageous by hastening depletion of soil broadleaf weed seed banks in forage barley, but may increase problematic broadleaf weeds in pea.