Excessive harvest of corn (Zea mays L.) stover for ethanol production has raised concerns regarding negative consequences on soil physical quality. Our objective was to quantify the impact of two tillage practices and three levels of corn stover harvest on near-surface soil physical quality through the Least Limiting Water Range (LLWR). We evaluated no harvest, moderate and high stover harvest ...

In winter 1999-2000 trials of deep tillage and recontouring of skid trails were implemented on three sites in northeastern Kentucky, USA to examine their potential as skid trail retirement options. While effective, current Best Management Practices (BMPs) for trail retirement do not address two potential benefits of retirement: recovery of normal hill slope hydrology and amelioration of soil co...

Hardpans (plough/hoe pans) are commonly believed to restrict plant root growth and crop yields under conventional small-scale agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. This study questions the notion of widespread hardpans in Zambia and their remedy under conservation tillage. Soil penetration resistance was measured in 8x12 grids, covering 80 cm wide and 60 cm deep profiles in 32 soil pits. Large and...

Soil organic C (SOC) and total N (TN) contents play a crucial role in sustaining agricultural production systems. Short-term ( 10-year) management effects on SOC and TN dynamics are often complex and variable. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate short-term tillage and cropping system effects on SOC and TN within the 0–30 cm soil depth across Iowa. The first experiment with no-tillage a...

on-farm experiments were designed to investigate the response of maize establishment and grain yield to variation in tillage systems. the tillage treatments included arara ploughing followed by zig-zag harrowing and arara ridging (t1); emcot ploughing fol-lowed by zig-zag harrowing and emcot ridging (t2); mouldboard ploughing followed by disc harrowing and mouldboard ridging (t3); disc ploughin...

Subsoiling a compacted soil should loosen it, improve the physical conditions, and increase nutrient availability and crop yields. The aim of this work is to compare the effects of different tillage and fertility treatments in a loamy Typic Hapludoll soil, and to determine the interactions of N fertilization with several soil properties and dryland corn (Zea mays L.) productivity. The experimen...

This study was designed to calibrate and evaluate the subsurface drain flow component of the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM; Version 2.5) for four tillage-systems: chisel plow (CP), moldboard plow (MB), no-tillage (NT), and ridge-tillage (RT). Measured subsurface drain flow data for 1990 was used for model calibration. Main parameters calibrated were lateral saturated hydraulic conductivi...

introduction phosphorus (p) is an essential element in crop nutrition, which can be growth limiting or an environmental contaminant, if present in excess. on the other hand, tillage practices have a direct effect on behavior and availability of soil p. since, application of different tillage methods lead to different patterns of soil phosphorus distribution, hence p fertilizer needs and p avail...

Soil compaction is recognized as a yield limiting factor in crop production. Compaction problems continue to exist for several reasons, including; 1) the large size (mass) of agricultural vehicles; 2) increased operations on wet soils because of larger farm acreage and multi-axle driven equipment; and, 3) the lack of controlled traffic patterns in fields. Where compaction is identified as a pro...