Effects of moling and cultivation on soil-water and runoff from a drained clay soil

Impacts of conservation tillage on the hydrological and agronomic performance of <i>Fanya juus</i> in the upper Blue Nile (Abbay) river basin

“…Subsoiling disrupted the plow pan thereby enhancing infiltration, the contour plowing with invisible barriers prevented water movement along the slope thereby reducing surface runoff. This result is in agreement with other investigations in similar environments: Sojka et al (1993) and Harris et al (1993) and others reported significant reduction in surface runoff as a result of subsoiling, while Gebreegziabher et al (2009) reported benefits of contour plowing in reducing surface runoff. The differences in surface runoff between CT and TT are larger for wheat than for tef (Table 2).…”

Tillage effects on soil hydraulic properties in space and time: State of the science

“…Changing from CT to NT practices has previously been thought to negatively impact the soil properties. NT systems, also known as ''direct drilling'' systems, have been applied and tested in Australia (Burch et al, 1986;Chan and Mead, 1988;Carter and Steed, 1992;Cresswell et al, 1992;Packer et al, 1992;Chan and Heenan, 1993;Murphy et al, 1993;Somaratne and Smettem, 1993;Carter et al, 1994;Suwardji and Eberbach, 1998), New Zealand (Ross and Hughes, 1985;Francis et al, 1987;Horne et al, 1992;Francis and Knight, 1993), Europe (Harris et al, 1993;Hansen and Djurhuus, 1997;Soane and Ball, 1998), and in the Americas (including Canada and South America; see below).…”

Overview of the studies on the cracking clay soil at Brimstone Farm, UK

“…Although the increase in crop yield with drainage was usually small, and may not be economically justified compared to the cost of installing and maintaining drainage, in practice the lack of drainage on these heavy clay soils can present severe management difficulties and limit the flexibility of farm operations. Examination of the mole drains indicated that the channels infilled completely often within four years due to piecemeal collapse of the roof and walls (Harris et al, 1993). Topsoil and crop residue infill also occurred as a result of the open structure.…”