• Authors:
    • Huffman, R. L.
    • Grabow, G. L.
    • Evans, R. O.
  • Source: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
  • Volume: 137
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: A subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) system was installed in the Piedmont of North Carolina in a clay soil in the fall of 2001 to test the effect of dripline spacing on corn and soybean yield. The system was zoned into three sections; each section was cropped to either corn ( Zea mays L.), full-season soybean [ Glycine max (L.) Merr.], or winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum) double cropped to soybean representing any year of a typical crop rotation in the region. Each section had four plots; two SDI plots with dripline spacing at either 1.52 or 2.28 m, an overhead sprinkler irrigated plot, and an unirrigated plot. There was no difference in average corn grain yield for 2002-2005 between dripline spacings or between either dripline spacing and sprinkler. Irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) was greater for sprinkler irrigated corn than for either SDI treatment and there was no difference in IWUE in soybean. Water typically moved laterally from the driplines 0.38 to 0.50 m. SDI yield and IWUE increased relative to sprinkler yields and water use efficiency in the second and third year of the study. This may suggest that initial fracturing of the heavy clay soil during SDI system installation and subsequent settling of the soil affected water distribution.
  • Authors:
    • Rayar, A. J.
    • Senthivel, T.
    • Kannan, N.
    • Frank, M.
  • Source: Agricultural Water Management
  • Volume: 97
  • Issue: 5
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: The study explores the potential of introducing an additional crop during dry season in Rwanda, comparing the efficiency of in situ soil moisture conservation techniques to sustain rain-fed agriculture. Comparative study of in situ soil moisture conservation techniques in bench terraces and unterraced field with maize crop had been conducted from June 2007 to October 2007. Bench terrace increased the average soil moisture content in 90 cm soil depth by more than 50% than that of unterraced land. Within the bench terraced field compartment bund and ridges and furrows increased soil moisture by 19.5% and 27.9% higher than plain bed. In terms of efficiency of moisture conservation, ridges and furrows performed well with 85.8% followed by compartment bund with 75.9% in terraced field. Unterraced field conserved moisture very poorly with 13.9% efficiency inferring importance of bench terraces for soil moisture conservation. No maize grain yield was recorded in all the techniques because soil water depleted to 60% and above from the beginning of the cropping period inferring the need of supplementary irrigation. Analysis of rainfall, crop water demand and in situ moisture conservation reveals exciting opportunities for water productivity enhancements by integrating components of water management within the context of rain-fed farming through water harvesting and supplemental or microirrigation for dry spell mitigation. Detailed analysis is needed for feasibility of lift irrigation with different crops under different altitudes to derive suitable policy for hill land irrigation.
  • Authors:
    • Xue, X.
    • Chen, G.
    • Hu, Y.
    • Ren, C.
    • Eneji, A.
    • Islam, M.
  • Source: Journal of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Ecology
  • Volume: 3
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Oat is an important grain and forage crop and is now being cultivated as a promising forage crop in northern China. Increased land degradation and shortage of forage resources for animal production over-winter have accentuated the need for alternative cropping systems in arid regions of northern China (
  • Authors:
    • Sweeney, D.
    • Kelley, K.
  • Source: Crop Management
  • Issue: July
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Field studies were conducted from 1996 through 2006 in southeastern Kansas to evaluate the influence of previous crop [corn, Zea mays L.; grain sorghum, Sorghum bicolor (L.); and soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr.] and tillage system (conventional versus no-till) on grain yield of hard red winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) and double-crop soybean in a 2-year rotation. On average, wheat yield was greater following corn or soybean than following grain sorghum. Yield of double-crop soybean averaged 20% greater when wheat followed corn or grain sorghum than when wheat followed full-season soybean. Tillage system influenced grain yield of double-crop soybean more than it influenced wheat yield. Double-crop soybean yield often was greater for continuous no-till than for conventional or one-time no-till per cropping cycle. Soil analyses at the end of the study showed that total C and total N were greater for no-till than for conventional in the 0- to 3-inch depth, but total C and total N were greater for conventional than no-till in the 3- to 6-inch depth. In the multi-cropping systems of the eastern Great Plains, both crop rotation and tillage system can significantly influence grain yield and selected soil properties.
  • Authors:
    • Hu, C. S.
    • Ren, T. S.
    • Du, Z. L.
  • Source: Soil Science Society of America Journal
  • Volume: 74
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Little information is available about their influences of conservation tillage on the distribution and storage of soil organic C (SOC) and total N in soil profiles in the North China Plain. We investigated the changes in SOC and total N as related to the shift from conventional to conservation tillage using a long-term field experiment with a winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.)-corn ( Zea mays L.) double cropping system. The experiment included four tillage treatments for winter wheat: moldboard plow without corn residue return (MP-R), moldboard plow with corn residue return (MP+R), rotary tillage (RT), and no-till (NT). Compared with the MP-R treatment, returning crop residue to the soil (MP+R, RT, and NT) increased SOC and total N in the 0- to 30-cm soil layer, but no distinct changes in SOC and total N concentration were observed among the four treatments at soil depths >30 cm. Compared with the MP+R treatment, the RT and NT treatments increased SOC and total N concentration significantly in the 0- to 10-cm layer but decreased SOC and total N concentration in the 10- to 20-cm layers. As a consequence, soil profile SOC and total N storage did not vary among the MP+R, RT, and NT treatments. Thus under the experimental conditions, conservation tillage (RT and NT) increased SOC and total N contents in the upper soil layers, but did not increase SOC and total N storage over conventional tillage (MP+R) in the soil profile.
  • Authors:
    • Reddy, P. R. R.
    • Veeranna, G.
    • Rao, L. J.
  • Source: Journal of Research ANGRAU
  • Volume: 38
  • Issue: 3/4
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Maize ( Zea mays) is one of the important cereal crops cultivated in India. Its area is expanding fast in Andhra Pradesh. Plant density in corn, varies with soil, rainfall, hybrid, planting pattern and field preparation (Olson and Sander, 1988). Of late, Zero tillage maize, after kharif rice is gaining popularity among the farming community in Andhra Pradesh. In zero tillage, after harvesting kharif rice, maize seeds will be dibbled under optimum moisture condition without any field preparation. Pre emergence spraying of atrazine in combination with paraquat or glyphosate is practiced to control weeds. Fertilizer application starts from 15 days after sowing in various quantities. In general, intercultivation is not practiced. The crop receives 4-6 irrigations depending on soil type.
  • Authors:
    • Kelley, J.
    • Oliver, D.
    • Gbur, E. E.
    • Brye, K. R.
    • Amuri, N.
  • Source: Weed Science
  • Volume: 58
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Management practices and cropping systems that serve as integrated weed management practices, and at the same time can contribute to improved soil quality, will be important for the sustainability of agricultural production systems. The objective of this study was to assess weed species population density under contrasting tillage (conventional tillage [CT] and no tillage [NT]), residue burning (burn and no burn), and residue level (low and high) treatments after 5 and 6 yr of consistent management in a wheat-soybean double-crop production system. A field experiment was conducted from fall 2001 to fall 2007 in the Mississippi River Delta region of eastern Arkansas on a Calloway silt-loam. Weed assessments were conducted twice during the soybean growing season, before (early season) and after herbicide application (late season) in 2006 and 2007. Total weed density was greater under CT (513 plants m(-2)) than under NT (340 plants m(-2)) early in the growing season in 2006, but was greater under NT than CT late in the season in 2007, suggesting that the effectiveness of glyphosate on total weeds differs between CT and NT. Averaged across residue levels, grass species density was greatest in the NT burn (68 to 167 plants m(-2)) combination and lowest in the NT no-burn (41 to 63 plants m(-2)) early in the growing season in both years. Broadleaf density was greater early (200 to 349 plants m(-2)) than late (18 to 20 plants m(-2)) in the growing season under both CT and NT in 2006, but in 2007 broadleaf density did not differ by tillage treatment between seasons. Perennial weed density was greater in the burn (99 plants m(-2)) than in the no-burn (59 plants m(-2)) treatment in 2006. No tillage, no burning, and a high residue level appeared to contribute to the suppression of most weed species without reducing herbicide efficiency.
  • Authors:
    • Lawson, A. R.
    • Greenwood, K. L.
    • Kelly, K. B.
  • Source: Agricultural Water Management
  • Volume: 96
  • Issue: 5
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: Knowledge of the components of the water balance - evaporation, transpiration and deep drainage - would be beneficial for targeting productivity improvements for irrigated forages in northern Victoria. We aimed to estimate these components using a simple water balance and the dual crop coefficients provided in FAO-56. Soil water deficits from a field experiment, comparing the water use of six border-check and one spray irrigated forage system, agreed well with the modelled values, except for alfalfa where irrigation intake was restricted. About 85% of the water applied to perennial forages (perennial ryegrass/white clover, tall fescue/white clover and alfalfa) was used for transpiration, 10% for evaporation and 5% was lost as drainage below the root zone. Evaporation was highest from the double-cropped (oats/millet) system (30%) and was 5-25% of the water used by winter-growing annual pastures (Persian clover/Italian ryegrass and both border-check and spray irrigated subterranean clover/Italian ryegrass). The high proportion of water used as transpiration by the perennial forages was due to their high ground cover maintained throughout the year. When compared over similar seasonal conditions, actively growing forages used similar amounts of water, indicating that any increases in water productivity will be mainly due to higher production and/or to matching the growing season of the forage to periods of lower potential evapotranspiration.
  • Authors:
    • He, J.
    • Wang, X. Y.
    • Gao, H. W.
    • Li, H. W.
    • Yao, Z. L.
  • Source: Soil Research
  • Volume: 47
  • Issue: 8
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: The furrow opening configuration used by no-till seeders can have a major effect on crop emergence in conservation tillage systems. This is particularly important in annual double-cropping regions (winter wheat and summer maize) of northern China where large volumes of residue remain on the soil surface after maize harvesting. This problem has been investigated using 3 different opening configurations for no-till wheat seeding near Beijing in 2004-05 and 2005-06, and assessing performance in terms of soil disturbance, residue cover index, soil cone index, fuel consumption, winter wheat emergence, plant growth, and subsequent yield. In this cropping system, the single-disc opening configuration significantly decreased mean soil disturbance and increased residue cover index compared with the combined strip-chop and strip-till opening configurations, but winter wheat emergence was 6-9% less, probably due to greater levels of residue cover and greater seed zone soil cone index. Winter wheat growth after seeding in combined strip-chop and strip-till seeded plots was faster than that in single-disc seeded plots and mean yield was greater. The most suitable furrow opening configuration in heavy residue cover conditions appeared to be the strip-chop one, which can provide similar crop performance with marginally better fuel economy than the strip-till opening configuration. These results should be seen as preliminary, but they are still valuable for the design and selection of no-till wheat seeders for double cropping in this region of China.
  • Authors:
    • Li, H. W.
    • He, J.
    • Zhang, X. R.
    • Li, W. Y.
  • Source: Nongye Jixie Xuebao = Transactions of the Chinese Society for Agricultural Machinery
  • Volume: 40
  • Issue: 10
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: This paper put forward the new anti-blocking principle combining residue-throwing by powered-chain finger and residue-cutting by knife type opener, and designed the powered chain anti-blocking mechanism for no-till planter according to the problem of residue blocking of no-till wheat planting in heavy corn residue cover fields in annual double cropping areas of North China plain. Furthermore, the key parameters for powered-chain, chain finger and knife type opener were determined based on the analyses of the movement of anti-blocking mechanism. The field experiment showed that the powered-chain anti-blocking mechanism could solve the residue blocking effectively, so as to ensure the passing of wheat no-till planter. Through real-time clearing of corn residues before the knife type opener, 12.3% of opening force was decreased. Compared with the strip roto-tilling wheat planter, the powered-chain wheat no-till planter could not only seed and fertilize at the suitable depths, but also decrease soil disturbance and fuel consumption by 66.4% and 8.07%, respectively, which indicates that this new planter can meet the requirements of agronomy in North China plain.