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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Morris, Minnesota » Soil Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #84395
Title: POST-CRP MANAGEMENT EFFECTS ON INFILTRATION

Author
item Lindstrom, Michael
item SCHUMACHER, T - SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIV

Submitted to: Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/31/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has successfully reduced erosion on highly erodible lands by establishment of a permanent vegetative cover and development of a stable soil structure. This study was started to determine the effects of tillage systems on water infiltration after CRP lands are returned to crop production. CRP lands from central South Dakota enrolled in the program in 1988 were broken out of CRP in 1994 and returned to a winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-fallow rotation by varying levels of tillage intensities. Water infiltration measurements were conducted on selected treatments in 1994 after a condensed fallow period of three months and in 1995 after a 12-month fallow period immediately after planting winter wheat. Water was applied at a rate of 63.5 mm hr**-1 for one hour using a sprinkling type infiltrometer for a dry run on antecedent soil moisture and then again the following day (wet run). No differences in water infiltration characteristics were observed in 1994 between the no-tilled, intensively tilled, or bare CRP (vegetation removed). Differences were observed during the wet runs in 1995 with the tilled treatments exhibiting less infiltration than the no-till or the vegetated CRP. These results show a decrease in water infiltration characteristics within a one-year fallow period after the breakout of CRP for the tilled treatments.