Brief description
The main principles of conservation agriculture are permanent soil cover, minimal soil disturbance and diverse crop rotations, yet these are often absent from our no-till systems. This project was designed to test and further develop high quality no-till systems based on these conservation principles. The project commenced in 2006 and completed twelve years of cropping in 2018. An additional year was completed in 2019 with the whole trial seeded to wheat. The overall objective of the project was to determine the benefits of diverse rotations, high residue and minimal disturbance no-till systems on soil quality, weeds, diseases as well as crop water use efficiency, economics, and yield.Lineage
Two long-term conservation agriculture cropping system experiments were started in 2007, one on a farm near Mingenew (115°17´E, 28°56´S) and the other at the Cunderdin College of Agriculture (117°14´E, 31°38´S) in Western Australia. The soil at Mingenew was deep yellow sand with a soil pH (0.01M CaCl2) ranging from 5.4 to 5.0. The Cunderdin soil was red sandy clay loam with pH of 6.6, increasing with depth to 7.9.The treatments were based on four different cropping philosophies/rotations titled “P1–maximum carbon input/continuous cereals”, “P2– maximum diversity/diverse rotation”, “P3–controls/monoculture wheat and permanent pasture” and “P4–maximum profit/farmer rotation” (Appendix 1). There was a total of 11 crop sequences each replicated three times in a randomised complete block design: the P1, P2 and P4 philosophies had a three-year rotation with each phase presented every year, giving nine crop sequences, while P3 had two sequences, being continuous crop and pasture. The crop types grown at the two sites were selected according to the particular philosophies/treatments but differed in some instances between the two sites because of soil type and local experience. Crops were only changed, to ensure they were relevant to farmers after three years (still within the ‘philosophy’) and when all phases of the rotation were complete.
Plots in the same phase within a rotation (i.e. the replicates) were given the same sequence number. The three sequences for the cereal rotation were S1–S3, those for the diverse rotation were S4–S6, monoculture wheat S7, pasture S8 and the farmer rotation were S9–S11. Therefore, there were a total of 33 plots, comprising 11 sequences, each replicated three times. In addition, four “farmer controls” that consists of geo-located positions within adjacent paddocks (that have sheep in the system), were monitored for soil properties, yield and quality of grain providing an additional two sequences. From 2010 onwards plots in the cereal, diverse and farmer rotations were split for different residue amounts. In the cereal and diverse rotations, the crop residue was either fully retained and spread behind the harvester (spread) or laid in a narrow windrow and then just the windrow burnt before seeding (windrow burn). In the farmer rotation, whole plots were windrow burnt from 2010 to 2012, then in 2013 were split for windrow burn and lightly tilled with a harrow (to a depth of about 15 cm, which buried most of the crop residue). The monoculture wheat plots were not split and maintained full residue retention (i.e. spread).
Data time period: 2007-07-01 to 2012-12-30
dcmiPoint: north=-29.193889; east=115.441111; projection=WGS84
Subjects
Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences |
Agriculture, Land and Farm Management |
Evaporation |
Farming Systems Research |
No-till |
Soil Water Content |
conservation agriculture |
crop residue |
cropping systems |
rotation |
stubble |
windrow burning |
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Identifiers
- Local : 102.100.100/421809
- DOI : 10.25919/p6za-4b50
