The effects of soil deformation and mulching on soybean shoot
growth and yield parameters were linked with inter-annual
weather fluctuations during growing season. The mean shoot
biomass and leaf area during the beginning pod stage (R3) and
yields of seeds, straw, proteins, and oil were the largest in 2007
(with good water supply throughout growing season), and they
successively decreased in 2008 (with alternative periods with high
and low rainfalls) and 2006 (with drought at bloom-full seed
stages).