Abstract
Cover cropping, tillage and crop rotation management can influence soil nutrient availability and crop yield through changes in soil physical, chemical and biological processes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of three years of cover crop, tillage, and crop rotation on selected soil nutrients. Twenty-four plots each of corn (Zea mays) and soybean (Glycine max) were established on a 4.05 ha field and arranged in a three-factor factorial design. The three factors (treatments) were two methods of tillage (no-tillage (NT) vs. moldboard plow [conventional] tillage (CT)), two types of cover crop (no cover crop (NC) vs. cover crop (CC)) and four typess of rotation (continuous corn, continuous soybean, corn/soybean and soybean/corn). Soil samples were taken each year at four different depths in each plot; 0–10 cm, 10–20 cm, 20–40 cm and 40–60 cm, and analyzed for soil nutrients: calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), nitrogen (NO3 and NH4), potassium (K), phosphorus (P), sulfur (S), sodium (Na), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and copper (Cu). The results in the first year showed that CT increased NO3-N availability by 40% compared with NT. In the second year, NH4-N was 8% lower under CC compared with NC management. In the third year, P was 12% greater under CC management compared with NC management. Thus, CC can enhance crop production systems by increasing P availability and scavenging excess NH4-N from the soil, but longer-term studies are needed to evaluate long-term effects.
Highlights
Large scale and aggressive tillage practices caused dramatic declines in soil productivity during the 20th century [1]
There was a main effect of tillage on some macro- and micro-nutrients (Table 2)
Crop rotation x tillage interaction was significant for 10 cm of the soil and lowest in the 40–60 cm depth
Summary
Large scale and aggressive tillage practices caused dramatic declines in soil productivity during the 20th century [1]. As a result of increased aeration and residue mixing encouraged by tillage, Reference [4] reported that the nutrient uptake by plants is generally greater with conventional tillage compared with no tillage. They argue that no-till (NT) encourages physical and chemical stratification, causing more localization of nutrients near the surface. Reference [5] showed that tillage encouraged large losses of organic
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