In this study, a fixed-site field experiment was conducted to study the influence of different combinations of tillage and straw incorporation management on carbon storage in different-sized soil aggregates and on crop yield after three years of rice-wheat rotation. Compared to conventional tillage, the percentages of >2 mm macroaggregates and water-stable macroaggregates in rice-wheat double-c...

The compositions of the germinable weed seedbank and aboveground weed communities in a long-term tillage and rotation study were characterized 4, 5, and 6 yr (2002 to 2004) after the adoption of glyphosate-tolerant corn and soybean. Averaged across rotation, mean germinable weed seed density and diversity were greatest in the no-tillage treatment as compared to the minimumand conventional-tilla...

Soil populations of plant-parasitic nematodes were monitored bimonthly for 18 months in irrigated and nonirrigated corn plantings using four production systems: conventional and minimum tillage with crop residue returned and minimum tillage with 60% or 90% of previous corn crop residue removed. Populations of Meloidogyne incognita, Scutellonema brachyurum, Pratylenchus scribneri, and Paratricho...

background and objectives: suitable tillage methods and planting cover crops are such factors in sustainable agricultural systems, which play an important role in the sustainability of agricultural production systems. minimum and no-tillage systems methods that leave instead of usually more than 30 percent of crop residue on the soil surface, are used to reduce soil erosion, improve soil physic...

John R. Teasdale is a plant physiologist at the Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, Maryland. N o-tillage cropping systems are known to provide many benefits to soils that can enhance production of grain crops. Many of the improvements to soils that result from no-tillage production such as increases in soil aggregation, water-holding cap...

Organic agricultural systems are often assumed to be more sustainable than conventional farming, yet there has been little work comparing surface water quality from organic and conventional production, especially under the same cropping sequence. Our objective was to compare nutrient and sediment losses, as well as sweet corn ( L. var. ) yield, from organic and conventional production with conv...

Field experiments were conducted to study weed population shifts in long-term conservation tillage systems. The objectives of this study were to determine weed community abundance, diversity and composition on conventional tillage (CT), minimum tillage (MT), no-tillage with paraplow (ZT) and no-tillage (NT) systems, and to identify species that are associated with specific tillage systems. The ...

the challenge for today's researchers and practitioners agriculture, increase productivity while maintaining or improving environmental quality (including water, soil and air) to be ¬ rapid population growth and increasing demand for food, researchers are continuing to study the management of high yielding varieties suitable for growing to escape environmental stresses in dry conditions an...

Producers are interested in tactics for managing crop residues when growing corn after spring wheat. We compared five systems of managing spring wheat residues: conventional tillage, no-till, strip-till, cover crop (hairy vetch) with no-till, and cover crop with strip-till following spring wheat. Conventional tillage consisted of chisel plowing and disking, whereas strip-till consisted of tilli...

high intensity evaporation from the soil surface due to low air humidity and poor soil structure and organic matter are constraints of agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions of iran. regionally, maintaining plant residue with tillage management is one method to improve these conditions. in this study, for a barley-corn rotation, four barley residue management methods for standing stubble (bu...