Abstract
Controlled traffic with conservation tillage can reduce soil compaction, thus to improve operation performance and fuel consumption of agricultural machine. Northern Chinese Plain is one of the main agricultural production bases with high level of agricultural mechanization. To explore the effect of wheel traffic on machine traction force and fuel consumption, three treatments were conducted: zero tillage with Controlled Traffic (NTCN), Compacted Treatment (CT) and traditional tillage system with random traffic (CK). Results showed that wheel traffic increased soil bulk density in the top soil layer in both fully compacted and random compacted plots. Controlled traffic system should certain potential on soil compaction amelioration. Controlled traffic system reduced traction force on winter wheat planting by 9.5 and 6.3%, compared with fully compacted treatment and random compacted treatment. Controlled traffic system reduced fuel consumption in both winter wheat planting and sub soiling (significantly), compared with fully compacted treatment and random compacted treatment. Results indicated that controlled traffic system had certain advantages in soil compaction and fuel consumption in this region and with high application potential.
Highlights
As the main agricultural production base, the North China Plain, which includes the provinces of Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Beijing and Tianjin, has about 18 million ha of farmland (18.3% of the national total) and represents 20% of total food production in China (Sun et al, 2007)
Due to the high rate on agricultural mechanization, serious soil compaction had been observed in previous studies on conservation tillage in annual two-crop region in North China Plain (He et al, 2011)
In the track of NTCN, the bulk density was higher in 5-10 cm layer, compared with Compacted Treatment (CT) and CK
Summary
As the main agricultural production base, the North China Plain, which includes the provinces of Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Beijing and Tianjin, has about 18 million ha of farmland (18.3% of the national total) and represents 20% of total food production in China (Sun et al, 2007). Due to the high rate on agricultural mechanization, serious soil compaction had been observed in previous studies on conservation tillage in annual two-crop region in North China Plain (He et al, 2011). Degradation of the sub-surface soil by wheel traffic induced compaction can reduce soil permeability, limit the benefits of residue cover and notillage and generate major practical problems in conservation tillage (Tullberg et al, 2007). Additional effort was required to disturb soil, which significantly increased machine working resistance and fuel consumption, reduced the economic benefits of conservation tillage (Hamza and Anderson, 2005)
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