Interference of GR® Volunteer Corn Population and Origin on Soybean Grain Yield Losses

ABSTRACT: The cultivation of GR® maize prior to soybean, mainly in the no-tillage system favors the higher occurrence of GR® volunteer corn interfering in soybean crops. Volunteer corn originate from seeds that were lost during harvest or from non-harvested seeds from the field; these are individual seeds, originating individual plants, or several seeds adhered to segments of the rachis, which originate clumps. Volunteer corn in the form of clumps predominates in soybean crops, but little information about its effect on soybean is available in the literature. During two years, three experiments were carried out with the objective of evaluate the impact of the interference of GR® F2 generation volunteer corn populations coming from individual and clump seeds (seven corn plants emerged at the same point) over soybean yield components and grain yield. The results show that losses in soybean yield components and grain yield are influenced by the population and origin of volunteer corn. Clumps cause losses over 90% for populations above four clumps m-2, while the mean maximum loss observed for individual plants was 83% in the largest studied populations. Soybean yield decreased significantly when competing with populations below one plant or clump m-2, being 16% and 46% in the population of 0.5 individual plant and clump m-2, respectively.