Location: Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research
Project Number: 2054-13000-010-001-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2019
End Date: Aug 31, 2023
Objective:
To evaluate the influence of dairy manure application, cover crops and tillage on soil physical properties in irrigated crop production.
Approach:
This study will evaluate the effects of management practices on soil physical properties. Saturated hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, soil aggregate stability, compaction, soil moisture, infiltration characteristics, and soil water holding capacity will be measured on established ARS studies at Kimberly, Idaho. These studies include 1) annual or biennial manure treatments applied at three rates since 2012, 2) manure, compost and slow-release fertilizer treatments applied since 2013, 3) manure, no-tillage and winter triticale treatments with continuous silage corn established in 2015, and 4) no-tillage and multi-species cover crop treatments established in 2016. Infiltration characteristics will be assessed using both a Cornell Sprinkle Infiltrometer (Cornell University, Cornell, New York) and Saturo dual head infiltrometer (METER Group, Pullman, Washington). Soil water content will be measured with sensors or neutron probe on the two cover crop studies to determine water balances for these studies. All other measurements will utilize standard methods outlined by the Soil Health Institute for the assessment of soil health characteristics.
