Winter wheat yields in a long-term tillage experiment under Pannonian climate conditions

Abstract

Long-term field experiments are important for assessing the yield response of crops to different tillage systems and pre-crops. An experiment was established in 1996 in Raasdorf (Austria) on a chernozem with four tillage treatments (mouldboard ploughing (MP), no-till (NT), deep conservation tillage and shallow conservation tillage) and two crop rotations. Winter wheat yields were generally at similar levels with all four tillage systems in most years between 1998 and 2012. Yields increased with higher amounts of rainfall during the vegetation period (from October until June) with the smallest increase among tillage treatments in NT. This indicates that MP can be superior to NT regarding yield at higher amounts of rainfall. Pre-crops considerably influenced winter wheat with higher yields after maize, soybean and winter wheat than after sugar beet. In one year with high rainfall, a tillage × pre-crop interaction showed that yields were lower after maize in NT than in other tillage systems whereas yields after sugar beet tended to be higher with NT in years with low rainfall.