No-tillage cultivation offers significant advantages over con­ ventional tillage in terms of water, energy, and particularly soil conservation (Francis et al., 1987). However, continuous no-tillage farming on sandy Ultisols may lead to high bulk density that has a pronounced effect on soil strength due to traffic compaction and lack of plowing (NeSmith et al., 1987). This increase in soil stren...

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) ...

Only 34% of all German farms apply reduced tillage (RT), while approximately 1% of the arable land is under no-tillage (NT). Statistics for organic farming are not available, but the percentages are probably even lower. The development of German organic RT and NT has been strongly driven by pioneer farmers for 40 years, and supported by field trials since the 1990s. The main motive for conversi...

In cold climates, snowmelt runoff often exceeds rainfall runoff during the year. Conservation tillage practices may be effective in reducing runoff during the cropping season but not during the snowmelt period. A plot study was conducted on a cropped hillslope to assess how tillage practices affect snowmelt runoff and the associated losses of sediment, phosphorus (P), and chemical oxygen demand...

Wilhelm, W.W., Hinze, M.R. and Gardner, C.O., 1991. Maize hybrid response to tillage under irrigated and dryland conditions. Field Crops Res., 26: 57-66. The popularity of reduced-tillage cropping systems has emphasized the need to determine if maize (Zea mays L.) developed under conventional tillage systems (moldboard plow, disk, and harrow) is readily adaptable to conservation production syst...

this study was undertaken to investigate the effect of long-term reduced tillage on grain yield, grain quality, and weed infestation of spring wheat. the experimental variables were three tillage systems: (a) conventional tillage (ct): shallow ploughing (10-12 cm) and harrowing after harvest of the previous crop, ploughing (25-30 cm) in the autumn; (b) reduced tillage (rt): only a cultivator (1...

Crop management practices (tillage, residue management, fertilization, etc.) define the soil environment to which crops are exposed and through these environmental conditions control crop growth. The purpose of this paper is to report the response of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to long-term (10 years) application of fallow tillage practices (plow, sub-till, and no-till) and N fertilizat...

Reducing tillage and growing cover crops, widely recommended practices for boosting soil health, have major impacts on soil communities. Surprisingly little is known about their impacts on soil microbial functional diversity, and especially so in irrigated Mediterranean ecosystems. In long-term experimental plots at the West Side Research and Extension Center in California's Central Valley, we ...

CT crop–fallow system in the central Great Plains (Shanahan et al., 1988; Halvorson, 1990; Peterson et al., Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)–fallow (WF) using conven1993; Halvorson and Reule, 1994; Farahani et al., 1998). tional stubble mulch tillage (CT) is the predominant production practice in the central Great Plains and has resulted in high erosion potential Winter wheat yields in a WCF...