Long‐Term Tillage on Yield and Water Use of Grain Sorghum and Winter Wheat

Abstract

Core Ideas Average sorghum yield advantage was 120% for no tillage over conventional tillage and 55% for reduced tillage over conventional tillage.Average wheat yield advantage was 31% for no tillage over conventional tillage and 12% for reduced tillage over conventional tillage.Available soil water at planting in soil profile was less for conventional tillage than both no tillage and reduced tillage for both crops.There was a decline in wheat yield over time due to increased seasonal temperature. Tillage is among crop management factors that affect yield, profitability, and environmental quality. The objective of our study was to evaluate the effect of three long‐term tillage intensities; conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT), and no‐till (NT), on winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) yield, available soil water (ASW), and water productivity. The study was conducted near Tribune, KS, from 1991 through 2015 in a wheat–sorghum–fallow (WSF) rotation. The CT plots were tilled (primarily with a sweep plow), on average, four to five times per fallow season; NT plots used herbicides for weed control during fallow. The RT plots used a combination of herbicides and tillage for weed control during fallow prior to both crops for years 1991 to 2000; and, for the years 2001 to 2015, the RT system was NT before sorghum planting (short‐term NT) and CT before wheat planting. On average, there was a 31% wheat yield advantage for NT over CT, 16% NT over RT, and 12% RT over CT. On average, there was a 120% sorghum yield advantage for NT over CT, 41% NT over RT, and 55% RT over CT. Sorghum yields were 80% greater for continuous NT compared with short‐term NT (2001–2015 RT). The average of profile ASW at planting was less for CT compared with NT and RT. There was a significant yield and water productivity benefit in the order NT > RT > CT for both crops, but greater for sorghum than wheat.

Effect of Crop Rotation and Cereal Monoculture on the Yield and Quality of Winter Wheat Grain and on Crop Infestation with Weeds and Soil Properties

“…This indicates explicitly that the conditions for wheat growth were less favorable in the CM than in the CR system. Similar observations were reported by Lund (1993), Debaeke et al (1996), Soane et al (2012), Ranjbar et al (2015), and by Schlegel et al (2018). Winter wheat grown in the CM system was also characterized by poorer grain quality, compared to the winter grains from the CR system, which was indicated by lower wet gluten content of the grain, lower grain volume weight and lesser grain uniformity, and by increased total ash content of the grain, compared to the CR system.…”

“…The yield and quality of wheat grain are determined by coeffects of habitat, agrotechnical measures as well as plant species and cultivar (Rachon et al 2015;Schlegel et al 2018;Woźniak and Soroka 2018). Contemporary agricultural systems usually tend to minimize expenditures incurred on tillage and make use of specialist crop rotations including 2-3 plant species requiring the same or similar cultivation technology (Soane et al 2012;Roche et al 2017).…”

A single tillage in a long‐term no‐till system on dryland crop performance

“…Occasional tillage should not be confused with RT since reduced tillage often involves at least one tillage in a year or several tillage operations during the fallow phase. It was reported that there was a 16 and 41% yield advantage for wheat and grain sorghum in a NT system over a RT system in WSF rotation (Schlegel et al, 2018). Among the few available research reports on occasional tillage, indicators were (a) no negative effect on soil microbial biomass,…”

Southwest Research-Extension Center Field Day 2019

“…In other research (Schlegel et al, 2018), reduced tillage systems (with four tillage operations) produced lower yields than a complete no-tillage system in a WSF rotation. However, in this study, a single tillage operation in a 3-yr WSF rotation generally had little effect on wheat or grain sorghum yields from 2014-2018 at Garden City or Tribune, KS.…”