There is interest in reducing or even eliminating tillage in organic production systems. In this special Issue, research teams in Europe and North America summarize recent and on-going efforts to develop conservation-tillage systems that can be used on commercial organic farms. While progress is being made in the development of organic no-tillage (no-till) systems, considerable work still needs...

Traffic-induced soil compaction and tillage systems can impact the productivity and sustainability of agricultural soils. The objective of this study was to assess the response of soil microbial populations to wheel-traffic in two tillage systems on a Norfolk loamy sand (Typic Kandiudults; FAO classification Luxic Ferralsols). Experimental variables were with and without traffic under conventio...

2000). Although these data are useful for soil erosion modeling, soil conservation planning, and the developFew direct measurements are made to quantify the erosion from ment of soil conservation practices on cultivated land upslope to lower field boundaries by intensive tillage. We conducted 50 plowing operations over a 5-d period using a donkey-drawn moldwith complex topography, it does not a...

Coarse-textured surface horizons are common in highly weathered southeastern US coastal plain soils. These soils have historically been managed under conventional tillage practices, but conservation tillage management practices are increasing. Although clay (<2 �m) contents are low in these surface horizons (typically <100 g kg−1), the reactive nature of this fraction tends to play a dominant r...

Tillage-induced changes in soil properties are difficult to predict, yet can influence evaporation, infiltration and howwater is redistributedwithin the profile after precipitation.We evaluated the effects of sweep tillage (ST) on near surface soil water dynamics as compared with an untilled (UT) soil during a 7-month period. Plots were established in a fallow field devoid of residue under stub...

1. Abstract Soil tillage is considered one of most important practices in agricultural production due to its influence on physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil environment. The effect of a long-term tillage [no-till (NT), spring till (ST), and fall and spring till (FST)] was investigated on soil penetration resistance (PR), bulk density (BD), gravimetric water content (GWC) ...

Tillage operation and fertilizer type play important roles in soil properties as far as soil microbial condition is concerned. Information regarding the simultaneous evaluation of the effect of long-term tillage and fertilization on the soil microbial traits of soybean farms is not available. Accordingly, it was hypothesized that, the microbial biomass and enzyme activity, more often than not, ...

Crop growth models can be useful tools in evaluating the impacts of di€erent tillage systems on the growth and ®nal yield of crops. A tillage model was incorporated into CROPGRO-Soybean and tested for conditions in Ames, IA, USA. Predictions of changes in surface residue, bulk density, hydraulic conductivity, runo€ curve number, and surface albedo were consistent with expected behaviors of thes...

This paper reviews research performed at the Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen, Germany into the impact of different tillage systems on soil properties and quality. The impact of intensive soil tillage treatments on several soil properties was described by means of selected data obtained through long-term interdisciplinary research. The experiments were based on comparative application (long-...

in order to evaluate the influence of different tillage methods and autumn pea cultivars (arman, hashem, ilc-482) in first cultivation on corn forage yield (variety of single cross-704) in second cultivation, this research has been done. the experiment was conducted as split-plot in rcbd with the replication of 4 in tehran university from karaj in 2012. the main plots included different tillage...