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Building Soil Quality with No-Till, Crop Rotations & Cover Crops

Building Soil Quality with No-Till, Crop Rotations & Cover Crops. $. $. $. $. D. Wayne Reeves J. Phil Campbell Sr. Natural Resource Conservation Center. “Soil degradation prevents the full use of the soil resource to meet human needs and impacts ecosystem functions.”.

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Building Soil Quality with No-Till, Crop Rotations & Cover Crops

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  1. Building Soil Quality with No-Till, Crop Rotations & Cover Crops $ $ $ $ D. Wayne Reeves J. Phil Campbell Sr. Natural Resource Conservation Center

  2. “Soil degradation prevents the full use of the soil resource to meet human needs and impacts ecosystem functions.” USDA-ARS Soil Resource Management National Program

  3. “Agricultural mismanagement is the most important causative factor of soil degradation . . . . .” Oldeman, 1994 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Global Assessment of Soil Degradtion (GlASOD)

  4. “Perhaps the most dominant soil degradative processes are soil erosion and organicmatterdecline.” B.A. Stewart, R. Lal, and S.A. El-Swaify. Sustaining the Resource Base of an Expanding World Agriculture. In:Soil Management for Sustainability. R. Lal and F.J. Pierce (eds.), 1991.

  5. Soil Quality Agricultural Productivity Soil Quality is the Converse of Degradation Health/Habitation Environmental Quality

  6. Soil c web Soil C is basis of Soil Quality/Productivity NH and NO , NH and NO , 3 4 3 4 Aggregate P, K, Ca, Al, P, K, Ca, Al, Stability CEC CEC Microbial Biomass C and N capacity Soil retention Respiration content Respiration to Biomass ratio Biomass C Water to TOC ratio Total Organic C and N C Size Distribution Bulk Density N mineralized Soil Strength Infiltration from Doran et al., 1993 from Doran et al., 1993

  7. Soil c web Soil C is the basis of Agricultural Sustainability . . . . SOM=SOC (x2)

  8. Evidence for Sustainability: SOM from ancient agricultural sites diverse rotations, green & animal manures continuous corn New Mexico 1000-1150 AD Peru 400 AD-present Sandor and Eash, 1991

  9. Evidence for Sustainability: SOM from ancient agricultural sites 4 Continuous Corn Rotation+Manures 3 2 SOM (%) 1 0 New Mexico 1000-1150 AD Peru 400 AD-present Cultivated Uncultivated Sandor and Eash, 1991

  10. How to increase soil C and improve soil quality? Conservation Tillage!

  11. Tillage impact on SOM after 10 y on a sandy soil SOM (%) 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 5 Depth (cm) 10 No-Till Conventional 15 20 Compass loamy sand

  12. GA corn erosion pic Conservation tillage alone does not work !

  13. Attitude adjustment Attitude Adjustment . . . Soil C and crop residues are the key to making conservation tillage work. It’s not “the lack of tillage” but the production & conservation of crop residues which offers the most benefit to productivity.

  14. Brazilian Model . . . 60 40 (%) Adoption 20 0 USA Brazil Argentina Paraguay Derpsch, 2004

  15. Need for crop residues to sustain soil resource as affected by climate. Need for Residue Hot Wet Cool Dry

  16. Conservation tillage – key component . . . cover crops/residue

  17. Effect of cover crop on SOM in no-till corn after 5 years . . . SOM (%) 0.5 1.5 2.5 3.5 0-3 Depth (cm) 3-6 clover 6-12 fallow Reeves and Wood, 1994

  18. Effect of tillage/rye cover crop on SOM after 5 y SOM (%) 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 5 10 Depth (cm) No-Till w/o cover Conventional w/o cover 15 No-Till w/ cover 20 Fall Paratill w/ cover 25 Decatur silt loam

  19. Crop Rotation “Here is my Farm Relief Bill: Every time a Southerner plants nothing on his farm but cotton year after year, and the Northerner nothing but wheat or corn, why, take a hammer and hit him twice right between the eyes. You may dent your hammer, but it will do more real good than all the bills you can pass in a year.” -Will Rogers, ca. 1931

  20. Old Rotation Experiment Cotton every year No legume/no N (1, 6) Winter legumes (2,3, 8) 120 lbs. N/acre/yr (13) Cotton-corn rotation Winter legume (4,7) Winter legume + 120 lbs. N/acre/yr (5,9) 3-year rotation Cotton (legumes)-Corn (small grain for grain)soybean (10,11,12)

  21. 1996-2005 “Old Rotation” cotton yield increase from first ten years (1896-1905) 1986-1995 250 200 150 Yield Increase (%) 100 50 0 Cot Cot/Corn (Leg) Cot(Leg) Cot/Corn (Leg+134 kg N/ha/yr)

  22. 1996-2005 1986-1995 Corn/Cot (Leg) Cot/Corn (Leg +134 kg N/ha/yr) Cot/Corn/Wht-Soy (Leg +60 kg N/ha on wheat) “Old Rotation” corn yield increase from first ten years (1896-1905) 600 500 Yield Increase (%) 400 300 200

  23. Conservation Tillage-constraints… Cooler, Wetter Soils

  24. Manage constraints . . . 65 oF @ 8:00 a.m. MAY 1 50 DD60’s

  25. Manage constraints . . . 50 -55 oF @ 8:00 a.m. MAY 2800 GDD

  26. Conservation Tillage-constraints… Poor Seed-Soil Contact

  27. Conservation Tillage-constraints… Soil Compaction/Crusting

  28. Manage compaction . . .

  29. Manage residue . . .

  30. Manage compaction . . . Non-Inversion Tillage

  31. Timing Non-inversion Tillage

  32. Cover Crops/ Residue Conservation tillage – key components . . . Manage soil compaction Cover Crops/ Residue

  33. Conservation tillage – key components . . . Manage soil compaction No Cover Crop or Rotation !

  34. Conventional Tillage

  35. No-Till w/o Cover Crop

  36. No-Till with Cover Crop

  37. No-Till with Cover Crop and Fall Paratilling

  38. Tillage negates cropping system effects! Health/Habitation Agricultural Productivity Soil Quality Environmental Quality

  39. Effect of cropping/tillage system on SOC (0-15 cm) from an eroded Ultisol conversion to conventional till soybean Grain sorghum no-till into crimson clover 30 25 20 Soil Carbon (g kg –1) 15 10 5 1984 1986 1988 1990 Year Bruce et al., 1995

  40. Top 2-cm of soil after 6 y of corn-soybean with clover cover crop No-tillage Conventional tillage

  41. Water is key pics $ $ $ $ Water is THEkey!

  42. Surface soil effects pic Residues/Soil C: Surface soil effects are most critical

  43. Rainfall sim pic lead-in Rainfall Simulation Study . . . Tillage Systems 12 yr old +/- residue removed

  44. Tillage and residue effects on infiltration of a Coastal Plain Soil (50-mm rain event) 100 11 days 80 60 Rainfall (%) 6 days 40 3 days 20 0 No Till w/ residue No Till w/o residue Conventional Tillage

  45. Limestone Valleys – Clay Soils Conservation Tillage Systems are Site-Specific. . . ..

  46. Coastal Plain – Sandy Soils Conservation Tillage Systems are Site-Specific. . . ..

  47. The Future: Site Specific Soil Management GPS Guidance System

  48. 2 4 5 . 5 7 8 . 5 Electrical Conductivity Map 32.4245 32.4240 32.4235 32.4230 32.4225 32.4220 32.4215 -85.8995 -85.899 -85.8985 -85.898 -85.8975 -85.897 -85.8965 -85.896 -85.8955

  49. No-tillage improves degraded soils andreduces spatial and temporal yield variablility Conservation Tillage (+16%) Conventional Tillage (+11%)

  50. Conclusions… Soil degradation is the problem . . .

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