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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Auburn, Alabama » Soil Dynamics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #218269
Title: Alternating Paratill Shank Placement for Enhanced Soil Disruption

Author
item Arriaga, Francisco
item Raper, Randy
item Balkcom, Kipling
item Kornecki, Ted

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/13/2007
Publication Date: 11/15/2007
Citation: Arriaga, F.J., Raper, R.L., Balkcom, K.S., Kornecki, T.S. 2007. Alternating Paratill Shank Placement for Enhanced Soil Disruption. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A ParatillTM is a type of bent-leg non-inversion tillage implement commonly used on Coastal Plain soils of the southeastern U.S. to break naturally occurring consolidated soil layers. Conservation tillage operations with a ParatillTM are usually conducted with the shanks placed in the same location year after year, disrupting the same volume of soil. Moving the location of the shanks on the toolbar so they are inverted from the previous year’s location can potentially increase the volume of disrupted soil below ground. This can create more favorable conditions for soil water redistribution into the root zone, while increasing soil rooting volume. The objective was to study the alternating placement of ParatillTM shanks on crop productivity and below ground disruption. The experiment was established in a corn (Zea mays) –cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) rotation with both crops present each year. Tillage treatments were: 1) Shanks on ParatillTM with points facing inward (common practice), and 2) Alternating the orientation of the shank points every other year. No differences in corn yields have been observed with the alternating shank location treatment in the first two years, but cotton yields were 7 and 32% greater in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Soil penetration resistance data collected at the end of both seasons suggest that the alternating shank location treatment loosens a greater volume of soil.