The Long-term Effects of Conservation Tillage on Sloping Fields Study By: Chun Jian Tan… Presentation By: Nick Eslick

Purpose of The Study: To understand the effects of conservation tillage on soil nutrients and yields.

Hypotheses: Null: Conventional tillage is the superior tillage method for sloping fields. Alt: Conservation tillage is superior to conservation tillage and results in higher soil nutrients and higher yields.

Definitions: Conservation Tillage- tillage system that creates a suitable soil environment for growing a crop and that conserves soil and, water. Conventional Tillage- Conventional tillage is a tillage system using cultivation as the major means of seedbed preparation and weed control. Context: Typically includes a sequence of soil tillage, such as ploughing and harrowing, to produce a fine seedbed, and also the removal of most of the plant residue from the previous crop.

Description of conservation tillage methods.

How the study was conducted: Six different conservation tillage methods were chosen including, traditional tillage, no till, straw mulching, plastic film mulching, ridging, and intercropping. Scientists studied the effects of these different methods on the soil’s nutrient levels, soil structure.

(a)-Soil organic matter at 0-10cm soil depth. (b)-Soil organic matter at 10-20cm soil depth. (c)-Soil organic matter at 20-30cm soil depth. (d)-dynamic changes in organic matter on six treatments over all depths.

(a)-Total available nitrogen at 0-10cm soil depth. (b)-Total available nitrogen at 10-20 cm soil depth. (c)-Total available nitrogen at 20-30cm soil depth.

This graph compares soybean yields while using 6 types of tillage. As you can see using the ridging tillage system resulted in the highest soybean yield and the Intercropping resulted in the lowest soybean yield.

Results: After 6 years of using various conservation tillage methods, the straw mulching method resulted in a high improvement over conventional tillage methods and the highest levels of organic matter, nitrogen, and the highest soybean yields.

Conclusion: There is sufficient evidence to show that conservation tillage is far superior to conventional tillage methods and resulted in higher levels of available nutrients in the soil.