To evaluate soybeans productivity on natural pasture fields, grown once with oats to produce grain and straw for soil cover, an experiment was carried out on a Typic Paleudult Soil at the Agricultural Experimental Station of the UFRGS, Eldorado do Sul - RS, Brazil. After mechanically harvesting oats, the straw was returned to plots in amounts of 0; 2; 3; 4; 5 and 6 Mg ha-1; these were the main treatments, which, were divided according to the furrow opening depth (0.06 m and 0.12 m) by the shanks of the drill. The experimental design followed a random design, with three repetitions. The area was divided in two, with and without irrigation. The volume of soil mobilized by the fertilizer furrow openers was 53% higher when the working depth reached 0.12 m compared to 0.06 m, but no difference due the amount of cover crop residues was attained. Grain yield, crop biomass and root mass to 0.15 cm depth did not differ with both soil working depth and crop residue cover. Irrigation increased in 11% grain yield and total biomass of soybeans. Even without irrigation, soybean productivity was higher than the Rio Grande do Sul State average, showing its suitability to be grown on native pastures under the no-till system.
vegetal biomass; soil disturbance; no-till
