ARS | Publication request: OPTIMIZING CONSERVATION TILLAGE PRODUCTION: SOIL SPECIFIC EFFECTS OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON COTTON, SOYBEAN, AND WHEAT

Submitted to: Southern Conservation Tillage for Sustainable Agriculture Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: June 24, 2002
Publication Date: June 24, 2002
Citation: BAUER, P.J., FREDERICK, J.R., BUSSCHER, W.J. OPTIMIZING CONSERVATION TILLAGE PRODUCTION: SOIL SPECIFIC EFFECTS OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON COTTON, SOYBEAN, AND WHEAT. CD-ROM. SOUTHERN CONSERVATION TILLAGE FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE PROCEEDINGS. 2002. P. 382-385.

Technical Abstract: Our objective was to determine if crops grown on different soil types differed in their yield response to residue management systems. Two large experiments were conducted near Florence, SC, on a field where soil type was mapped on a 100-ft grid. In the first experiment, cotton (Gossypium hirustum L.) was grown with conventional and conservation tillage with residue covers of cotton stubble, rye (Secale cereale L.) winter cover crop stubble, or corn (Zea mays L.) stubble. In the second experiment, different surface and deep tillage treatments were evaluated for a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.) double crop system. Also, a continuous wheat-soybean rotation was evaluated against a two-year wheat-soybean-corn rotation. Only data from two soil map units (Norfolk loamy sand and Bonneau loamy sand) were used in this analysis. Interactions occurred for yield between soil management factors and soils for cotton and wheat, but not for soybeans. Most soil-specific yield responses to these management factors occurred within the conventional tillage regime. For all three crops, both soils had similar yield responses to the soil management factors when conservation tillage was used. Our data indicate that across soil map units, the yield response to residue management inputs is more predictable with conservation tillage than with conventional tillage.