A residue detection and implement control system and method are disclosed for an agricultural implement. The system includes a source of environment data and image data of an imaged area of a crop field containing residue. The system includes a data store containing a plurality of image processing methods and at least one controller that processes the image data according to one or more image processing instruction sets. The controller selects one or more of the image processing methods based on the environment data, and processes the image data using the selected image processing instruction(s) to determine a value corresponding to residue coverage in the imaged area of the field. The controller adjusts the configuration of the agricultural implement to respond to the amount and type of residue detected.