Residue cover is very important for controlling soil erosion by water and wind. Thus, the wind erosion prediction system (WEPS) includes a model for the decomposition of crop residue. It simulates the fall rate of standing residue and the decomposition of standing and flat residue as a function of temperature and moisture. It also calculates residue cover from flat residue mass. Most of the data used to develop and parameterize this model have been collected in the southern USA. We compared WEPS-simulated residue cover with that measured in south-central North Dakota for 50 two-year cropping sequences from nine crops species that were grown using no-till management. Measured data included residue mass at the time of harvest and residue cover just after seeding the next spring.
