Evaluation of soil tillage systems in maize production

Abstract

The cultivation technologies for the dominant crops in Hungary need to be improved both in the interests of environmental protection and to reduce cultivation costs. A long-term research project was initiated in order to determine the feasibility of conservation tillage systems. The aim of the experiments was to evaluate conservation farming systems in Hungary in order to achieve more economical and more environment-friendly agricultural land use. Four tillage systems, namely conventional tillage (mouldboard plough), conservation tillage I (primary tillage with a J.D. Disk Ripper), conservation tillage II (primary tillage with a J.D. Mulch Finisher) and no tillage (direct drilling), were compared on a clay loam meadow soil (Vertisol). The physical condition of the experimental soils was evaluated using a hand-operated static cone penetrometer. Parallel with the measurement of penetration resistance, the moisture content of the soil was also determined. The grain yield of maize hybrids (Kincs SC [1999], Occitán SC [2000], Pr 37M34 SC [2001], DeKalb 471 SC [2002]) was measured using a plot combine-harvester. The analysis of soil conditions confirmed that if the cultivation depth and intensity are reduced the compaction of soil layers close to the surface can be expected. The decrease in yields (8-33%) in direct drilling (NT) and shallow, spring cultivated (MF) treatments, despite the higher available water content, can be explained partly by the compacted status of the 15-25 cm soil layer.

Do different production environments justify separate maize breeding programs?

“…They also investigated penetration resistance and soil temperature under NT and CT systems on silt loam in Pennsylvania. The results showed that the penetration resistance was signiWcantly higher in the soil surface of NT than in the CT system, which agree with other studies conducted in silt loam and loam soils in the Swiss midlands (Chassot et al 2001), loamy sand soil in South Carolina (Busscher and Sojka 1987;Busscher et al 1986), sandy loam in Atlantic Canada, Hungary, Australia, and Argentina (Carter et al 2002;Fabrizzi et al 2005;Laszlo and Gyuricza 2004;Ratonyi et al 2005). The results of Duiker et al (2006) also showed a decreased average surface soil temperature in NT compared with CT which primarily resulted from diVerences in maximum temperature instead of minimum temperature.…”

“…In their study, yield under NT was higher than that under CT due to higher percentage of emergence under NT, since Weld was irrigated after planting resulting in higher water content in NT plot which promoted higher percentage of emergence. SigniWcant tillage method eVects on plant height and grain yield have been reported by other researchers and it was found that maize yield was decreased under NT more than under the CT system (GriYth et al 1998;Jug et al 2007;Ratonyi et al 2005;Yalcin and Cakir 2006;Zougmore et al 2006). However, some studies reported diVerent results.…”

Effects of soil compaction on cereal yield

“…The decrease in yields (8-33%) in direct drilling and shallow, spring cultivated treatments, despite the higher water content available, can be explained partly by the compacted status of the 15-25 cm soil layer (Rátonyi et al 2005).…”

Influence of soil tillage system on soil compaction and winter wheat yield

“…Wozniak (2013) also indicated significantly higher wheat grain yields in the CT system compared with the RT and NT systems. A decrease in grain yield after direct sowing between 8% and 33% can be caused by higher soil compaction in the 15-25 cm depth layer (Rátonyi et al, 2005). Martinez et al (2011) emphasize that in the favorable productive years, wheat yield was the highest in the CT compared with conservation tillage and NT systems.…”