home    about    browse    search    latest    help 
Login | Create Account

Non-inverting Tillage: Early-Stage Effects on Soil Mechanical Behaviour

Munkholm, Lars J; Schjønning, Per and Rasmussen, Karl J (2000) Non-inverting Tillage: Early-Stage Effects on Soil Mechanical Behaviour. In: Morrison, J.E. (Ed.) CD-ROM: Proceedings 15th ISTRO Conference, Texas, June 2000, pp. 1-10. [Unpublished]

[thumbnail of Istro.pdf] PDF - English
150kB


Summary

Organic farmers often claim positive effects of non-inverting and reduced tillage systems. There is a need of quantifying tilth characteristics in the former plough layer of soil converted to such tillage systems. A non-inverting tillage system (NINV) was tested in a field experiment conducted on a Danish sandy loam soil. It included deep loosening and shallow intensive cultivation and was compared to a conventional ploughing-harrowing tillage system (CONV).
A hierarchical analytical procedure was applied in studies of soil fragmentation and soil strength characteristics for the 7-14 cm soil layer. A visual description was carried out and ease of fragmentation was evaluated in the field using a soil drop test. Soil strength was measured in the field with a cone penetrometer and a torsional shear box method, and in the laboratory using an annulus shear strength method. Tensile strength was determined in the laboratory on field-sampled aggregates.
The CONV treated soil displayed a higher ease of fragmentation in the field in May as well as in September. In general, aggregates from the NINV treated soil were stronger than aggregates from the CONV treatment. The soils had similar friability indices in May. In September, however, a higher friability index was found for the CONV treated soil (k=0.22 and 0.16, respectively for CONV and NINV). The NINV treated soil also displayed the highest soil strength.
The soil tilth was evaluated to be best in the CONV treated soil. Supposed meliorating actions during the growing season did not eliminate the differences between the treatments.


EPrint Type:Conference paper, poster, etc.
Type of presentation:Paper
Subjects: Soil > Soil quality
Crop husbandry > Soil tillage
Research affiliation: Denmark > DARCOF I (1996-2001) > I.3 Fertility and soil tillage
Denmark > DARCOF II (2000-2005) > I. 7 (ROMAPAC) Soil quality in organic farming
Deposited By: Schjønning, Senior Soil Scientist Per
ID Code:57
Deposited On:09 Oct 2002
Last Modified:12 Apr 2010 07:27
Document Language:English
Status:Unpublished
Refereed:Not peer-reviewed
Additional Publishing Information:CD-ROM

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics