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Title: PERFORMANCE OF REDUCED-TILLAGE CROPPING SYSTEMS FOR SUSTAINABLE GRAIN PRODUCTION IN THE MID-ATLANTIC STATES

Author
item Teasdale, John
item Coffman, Charles
item ROSECRANCE, RICHARD - COLL OF AGRI CSU CHICO CA
item Starr, James
item PALTINEANU, IOAN - UNIV OF MARYLAND
item Lu, Yao
item Watkins, Kenton - Brad

Submitted to: Journal of Production Agriculture
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/15/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: There is a need to develop sustainable production systems that maintain soil resources and reduce environmental contamination. This is particularly challenging on erodible land that is incompatible with tillage-intensive operations. A long-term cropping systems comparison was established on a 15-acre site with 2 to 15% slope at Beltsville, MD to evaluate the efficacy of sustainable strategies compatible with reduced-tillage systems required on erodible land. All systems followed a two-year rotation consisting of corn (Zea mays L.) in the first year and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] in the second year. Treatments included 1) no tillage (NT) with recommended fertilizer and herbicide inputs, 2) no tillage with a crownvetch (CV) (Coronilla varia L.) living mulch suppressed with herbicides, 3) no tillage plus winter annual cover crops (CC) with reduced fertilizer and herbicide inputs, and 4) chisel plow with cow and green manure (M) as nutrient sources and rotary hoe plus cultivation for weed control. The NT system produced the most grain per vegetative biomass produced while the CC system produced the most grain per external nitrogen inputs throughout the rotational cycle. Both the NT and CC systems had the highest water-use efficiency. Corn yields were highly variable in the CV system because of competition with the crownvetch living mulch in dry years but wheat yields were highest in this system. Weed populations were maintained at low levels in all systems except for escaped annual weeds within the rows of the M system. Yields were often reduced in the M system compared to the highest yielding systems, however, profitability was similar to the NT and CC systems.

Technical Abstract: There is a need to develop sustainable production systems that maintain soil resources and reduce environmental contamination. This is particularly challenging on erodible land that is incompatible with tillage-intensive operations. A long-term cropping system was established on a 15-acre site with 2 to 15% slope at Beltsville, MD to evaluate the efficacy of sustainable strategies compatible with reduced- tillage systems required on erodible land. Four systems were compared that all followed a grain crop rotation but differed in amounts of tillage and of fertilizer and herbicide inputs. During the initial four years of the experiment, no single system performed best by all measures of comparison suggesting that some tradeoffs will be required when choosing production systems. A no-tillage system using recommended inputs was most efficient at producing grain overall but a no-tillage system including winter annual cover crops had the best nitrogen- and water-use efficiency. An organic system produced lower yields but, because of lower costs, was similarly profitable to the higher yielding systems. This information will be useful to growers and consultants who want to change to alternative production systems that are more sustainable. Policy makers also will find this information useful for understanding the consequences of alternative practices.