Efficacy of soybean production depending on the primary soil treatment, mineral fertilizers and herbi-cides
In 2013-2019, we studied the features of soybean production process and its dependence on the methods of primary soil treatment and chemicals application in the field crop rotation with alternating crops: black fallow - winter wheat - soy - barley on typical black soil in a stationary field experiment of the Tambov Research Institute of Agriculture. We compared five primary soil treatments: plowing on a depth of 25-27 cm (control); surface tillage on 10-12 cm and subsurface one on 25-27 cm (resource-saving) under surface and subsurface tillage in crop rotation; moldboard plowing on 25-27 cm under subsurface tillage on 20-22 cm and moldboard plowing under surface plowing on 10-12 cm in the crop rotation. The mineral nutrition level included three options: without fertilizers, N<sub>30</sub>P<sub>30</sub>K<sub>30</sub> and N<sub>60</sub>P<sub>60</sub>K<sub>60</sub>. Plant protection consisted of two levels: seed treatment - background, background + herbicides during crop vegetative period. The object of research was a soybean cultivar Annushka. The trial showed plant protection measures (herbicides) and fertilizers had the greatest impact on soybean productivity among all the studied factors. Primary soil treatment did not significantly affect the yield and quality of seeds. The profitability of soybean seed production can reach 200 percent or more. Fertilizers application reduces this figure to 122%, and in the absence of chemical weeding with herbicides - to 55-72%.