Tillage of Cover Crops Affects Soil Water, Nitrogen, and Wheat Yield Components

• DOI: 10.2134/agronj14.0007
• Publication Date: 2014-06-06T15:20:13Z
• Authors: Macdonald Burgess; Perry Miller; Clain Jones; Anton Bekkerman
• Keywords: Conventional tillage

Annual legume green manure (LGM) cover crops may have potential in dryland wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) production areas where rotation with whole‐year summer fallow is practiced. No‐till cropland management enhances soil water conservation, possibly enabling cropping, but tillage be necessary to stimulate mineralization of LGM N time affect crop yield. A 2‐yr LGM‐wheat sequence study was repeated three times Montana, mean annual precipitation 356 mm. Spring‐planted pea Pisum sativum and lentil Lens culinaris Medik.) The were terminated at first bloom or herbicide. Post‐termination weed control also accomplished either herbicide a factorial combination the termination treatments, resulting four regimes. Fallow non‐N‐fixing controls included subjected same Spring grown following year subplots levels fertilizer. Wheat tiller density increased only when tilled least once. Tillage resulted reduced storage kernel weight 1 yr. Effects on grain yield usually neutral positive, more frequently having positive effect than lentil, interactions varying each year. protein by regardless tillage, even did not yield, indicating that supply accelerated tillage. Managing environments involves tradeoff for supply, affects this balance.