Abstract

Reduced tillage is interesting in many points of views and improved soil structure is a factor of great importance. In reduced tillage the labour intensive mouldboard plough is often replaced by disc or spring-tine cultivators. Tillage systems affect several soil properties, both biological and physical. Reduced tillage is often shown to improve soil structure and the method has in Sweden been best suited on strongly structured heavy clays. Weakly structured soils needs more loosening and reduced tillage has not been that successful on these types of soils. It can take several years with reduced tillage before the positive effects becomes beneficial. Measurements on soil properties affecting crop growth has been studied in field trials in south of Sweden on two farms. The randomized block designed trials consist of four tillage systems and they are listed as: (A1) reduced tillage (15 cm), (A2) reduced tillage (5-7 cm), (B) conventional ploughing (20-22 cm) and (C) shallow ploughing (12-15 cm). Measurements of dry bulk density, infiltration, penetration resistance and root development were performed under spring and early summer 2008. Furthermore preferential flow was studied with the dye tracer Brilliant Blue FCF using high resolution images. The measurements showed that the difference between the different tillage methods generally was small. The differences between ploughed and non-ploughed plots were more pronounced than between tillage depths. Dry bulk density in the topsoil does not always increase when conventional plough is replaced by reduced tillage systems. Increased tillage depth did not affect the penetration resistance in the non-ploughed plots. The ploughed plots generally had lower penetration resistance than the non ploughed plots and the shallow ploughed plot resulted in higher penetration resistance compared to the deep ploughed plots. On Charlottenlund root development was significantly higher in the non-ploughed plots which is interesting compared to other studies that have found higher root development in ploughed plots. Infiltration in the top soil was generally higher in the ploughed plots. At the depth of the plough pan the infiltration was higher in non-ploughed plots at Väby but no differences were found at Charlottenlund. The dye tracer experiment showed that there were no differences between ploughed and non-ploughed plots. The four different tillage methods did not significantly affect crop yields on Charlottenlund and Väby in 2008

Keywords

jordbearbetning; reducerad bearbetning; markstruktur; fältförsök; preferensflöde; markfysikaliska parametrar

Published in

Meddelanden från Jordbearbetningsavdelningen
2008, number: 57
Publisher: Institutionen för markvetenskap, Avdelningen för jordbearbetning, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/30834