Relay Cropping System Lowers Input Costs, Raises ROI

Standing at the edge of a wheat field that will never break yield records, Jason Mauck explains that is exactly the point.

Instead of chasing trophies, the Gaston, Ind., farmer and CEO of Constant Canopy has spent over a decade turning wheat into a biological workhorse designed to support his soybean crops and, ultimately, protect his bottom line.

“It’s about economics,” Mauck says in an April 5 post to X.

By rethinking the traditional hierarchy of his fields, Mauck has engineered a relay system where wheat plays the perfect supporting actor, setting the stage for his soybean crop to take the lead and shine.

Rethinking Wheat’s Role On The Farm

Mauck’s strategy starts with a mental shift many growers may find uncomfortable: he does not try to push wheat past 100 bushels per acre.

“That takes too much time, too much sunlight,” he says. “You see your revenue is a lot less pushing wheat, selling 60 pounds of crop at a cheaper commodity price.”

Instead, he looks at how wheat and soybeans can perform together in the relay system — wheat first, then soybeans taking over as the season progresses. As wheat yields are dialed back, more resources open up for the beans.

“As your wheat yields go down, it creates space and opportunity and more water for beans,” Mauck explains.

He illustrates the benefit of the relay approach with a comparison. In one scenario, when wheat was pushed to yield 110 bushels, his soybean yields lagged. In a second scenario, both crops delivered yields of about 70 bushels.

“The main idea is we can grow 70-bushel wheat and 70-bushel soybeans and make about $250 more revenue per acre than pushing wheat yields up over 100 bushels per acre and double-cropping (soybeans),” he says in the post on X.

“We also save over $150 an acre in costs due to less wheat and soybean seed, less nitrogen… p+k, less fuel at harvest… and maybe the best thing is we can leave the field after wheat harvest and the soybeans are 2’ tall … not requiring baling/burning/ or tilling the straw,” he adds.

(Jason Mauck)

Lower Populations, Lower Inputs

To make the relay system work, over time Mauck has adjusted how he plants and manages wheat. One of the biggest changes has been to his seeding rate.

He plants a reduced wheat stand — about 425,000 seeds per acre — using only 18 rows of a 32-row planter. That leaves room in the system to intercrop soybeans while still establishing a solid wheat crop.

With fewer plants in the field, the wheat has access to more room and sunlight. Mauck notes that the result is heavy tillering which compensates for the lower population.

“We can get, you know, five, seven, nine wheat heads off of a single seed, and that helps drive the aggregate cost down to be about $150 [an acre] less than a corn crop,” he says.

Lower plant numbers also change how he fertilizes, reducing costs.

“It doesn’t take nearly as much nitrogen to push wheat to healthy vigor, with more light and less plants to feed,” he notes.

Wheat As A “Hybrid” Cover Crop

Another pillar of Mauck’s approach is timing of the crops. Wheat begins growing in February, well before soybeans go into the ground.

By early to mid-April, the wheat is about 10 inches tall. That growth is important, as the wheat pulls moisture out of the profile and conditions the field for the soybeans that will soon be planted.

Mauck says the wheat works like a “revenue-generating cover crop.” It creates a unique growing environment, allowing him to plant soybeans into a clean, conventional seedbed centered between the wheat rows. With a row of wheat positioned just inches to either side of the beans, the system naturally forms a solar corridor. This setup allows the wheat to manage soil moisture early on, while ensuring the soybeans have plenty of direct sunlight and space to flourish.

Once the wheat is harvested, the soybeans get an additional boost. “When we remove the wheat, it essentially prunes the biomass, allowing more light for the soybeans,” Mauck says.

In effect, wheat serves three purposes, he adds: it functions as a cash crop, a living cover that prepares the soil environment, and a temporary competitor to weeds before soybeans close the canopy.

Built For Controlled Traffic And Big Iron

While Mauck says the agronomics of the relay system are impressive, the secret to its scalability is mechanical precision. He uses a 40-foot “controlled traffic” system in fields, which essentially designates permanent highways for heavy machinery and protects the rest of the soil from compaction.

Here is how he breaks down the math of the wheel tracks:

The Triple Row (135-inch centers): The widest part of the layout is designed so the combine’s “fat tires” roll directly over a specific triple row of wheat.

The Inside Rows (60-inch centers): These are spaced to match the standard wheel tracks of a tractor, allowing it to pass through the field without touching the crop zone.

GPS Guidance: Thanks to GPS, every pass — from the sprayer to the harvester — follows the same lines year after year.

By concentrating all the heavy weight into these narrow, dedicated lanes, Mauck keeps the majority of his soils loose and aerated. It turns the logistical headache of “driving over two crops” into a streamlined, repeatable process that limits damage.

Eleven Years Of Refinement

Mauck has been working with the wheat–soybean relay concept for more than a decade, tweaking details as he learns how the crops interact and how the economics pencil out.

At this point, he is largely satisfied with the agronomics and structure of the system. The next frontier, he believes, is adding more precision to how he applies inputs.

“The only change that we can make is getting equipment to where we can band spray, we can sidedress the wheat when we plant the beans, and we can do a little bit more with the system,” he says. “But I’m very happy with the agronomics that we’ve got this year. Really looking forward to how this will play out as we go forward.”

Mauck believes his experience offers a different way to think about having small grains and soybeans in the same field. Rather than treating wheat as a standalone crop or a cover that must be terminated, he uses it as a living partner that hands off moisture, light and space to soybeans at just the right time.

The takeaway for other farmers, he says, is straightforward: focus on profit, not just bushels, and let each crop in the system do the job it’s best suited to do.