http://orgprints.org/9887/ Assessment of selected soil parameters in a long-term Western Canadian organic field experiment Entz, Martin Welsh, Cathy Tenuta, Mario Chen, Yu Ying Nelson, Alison Froese, Jane Production systems A long-term field study was used to compare soil nitrogen and phosphorous status, and soil aggregate stability in organic and conventional cropping systems. Two rotations were tested: a grain only and a grain-alfalfa hay rotation. The organic systems had a lower nitrate leaching potential than the same rotations under conventional management. After 13 years, one organic system (the grain-alfalfa; no manure return) is suffering serious soil P depletion. However, the grain only and the grain-alfalfa with manure return to land systems had soil P levels similar to the prairie grass control treatment and showed no signs of P deficiency. Despite having lower levels of organic carbon, the organic soils had higher levels of wet aggregate stability than conventionally managed soils. 2007 Conference paper, poster, etc. NonPeerReviewed application/pdf http://orgprints.org/9887/1/Entz-etal-2007-soil_parameters.pdf Entz, Martin; Welsh, Cathy; Tenuta, Mario; Chen, Yu Ying; Nelson, Alison and Froese, Jane (2007) Assessment of selected soil parameters in a long-term Western Canadian organic field experiment. 3rd QLIF Congress: Improving Sustainability in Organic and Low Input Food Production Systems, University of Hohenheim, Germany, March 20-23, 2007. http://orgprints.org/9887/http://orgprints.org/9887/1/