Changes in mouldboard plough draught and tractor fuel consumption on continuous corn after 18 years of organic and inorganic N amendments

Repeated soil application of organic waste amendments reduces draught force and fuel consumption for soil tillage

“…When the variance in specific draught explained by clay content was first accounted for in an ANOVA, the effect of treatments on specific draught appeared to be highly significant (data not shown). This is in agreement with studies performed at the central experimental farm in Ottawa, Canada that report variable draught forces for different regimes of stockpiled and rotted manure application (McLaughlin et al, 2002;Liang et al, 2013). However, this treatment effect was due to the amount of SOC accumulated by the different OWP, rather than to the composition of accumulated SOC.…”

“…This is in line with the results calculated by Bruun et al (2013) using literature data and reporting a fuel saving of up to 20% by applying sewage sludge compost and by Liang et al (2013) using a direct measurement of tractor fuel consumption and reporting a maximum fuel saving of 22% compared to non-amended treatment for soil amended with 100 Mg ha À1 of rotted manure for 18 years. Fuel savings for soil tillage therefore appear to be a significant environmental benefit of soil application of organic waste that should be taken into consideration.…”

“…As such they also constitute a unique possibility for testing the effect of OWP application on draught force and energy consumption during tillage operations. However, only a very few studies have investigated the relationships between soil carbon and draught force for soil tillage, showing that the latter is mostly dependant on soil carbon and clay content (McLaughlin et al, 2002;Watts et al, 2006;Liang et al, 2013). The relationship for soils receiving different types of OWP including OWP of urban or agro-industrial origin has, to the best of the authors' knowledge, never been investigated.…”

Dynamics of Microbial Biomass, Nitrogen Mineralization and Crop Uptake in Response to Placement of Maize Residue Returned to Chinese Mollisols over the Maize Growing Season

“…Returning crop residues to soils is a nutrient-conserving strategy within soil fertility management and can enhance crop production [1,2]. Residues returned can not only reduce environmental pollution, but also affect greenhouse gas emissions by increasing soil carbon (C) sequestration potential [3], which reduces soil CO 2 emissions and the contribution to global climate change [3,4].…”

“…Therefore, we set up a pot experiment with returned residue placed at different positions in the soil to test these hypotheses. The objectives of the present study were (1) to assess the changes in microbial activities and microbial biomass in 0-5 and 5-10 cm layers at different maize growth stages; (2) to determine the dynamics of soil net N mineralization or immobilization at different maize growth stages; (3) to determine the distribution of N (organic and mineral) derived from maize residue, and (4) to quantify the potential N supply from maize residue available for plant growth, and subsequent plant N uptake. This study was conducted in an extreme condition where no mineral fertilizers were applied to the soil to isolate residue N, to determine how much N was released from the residue and how much N was provided for the growth of maize.…”