Water infiltration into a glacial till soil following subsoiling and secondary tillage

Pikul Jr, J.L. and Aase, J.K. (1997) Water infiltration into a glacial till soil following subsoiling and secondary tillage. pp. 527-530. In: Proceedings 14th Istro Conf. Poland-Pulawy, 1997/07/27-08/01, 1997.

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Abstract

Water limits crop production in the semiarid northern Great Plains of the United States.
Summer fallow is commonly practiced to store water in the soil for use by a later crop (Haas,
el al., 1974). However, high evaporation rates makes summer fallowing inefficient in storing
water (Tanka, 1985; Tanka and Aase, 1987). Additionally, the fallow-wheat (Triticum
aestivum L.) crop sequence has been implicated as the cause of serious declines in soil
organic carbon (Rasmussen and Parton, 1994). A recent report by Aase and Pikul (1995)
showed that annually grown spring wheat was an acceptable alternative to the traditional
fallow-wheat crop sequence in eastern Montana, USA. To successfully grow a crop every
year, however, it is essential to conserve as much precipitation as possible between harvest
and seeding.
Specialized tillage is thought to improve water infiltration and soil water storage. Pikul et al.
(1996) have shown that soil ripping on the contour may improve water infiltration into frozen
soil and possibly increase soil water storage. Objectives were to 1) determine the effect of soil
ripping on water infiltration and 2) evaluate the durability of tillage induced soil structure
following repeated wetting and drying cycles.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
NWISRL Publication Number:	0938
Subjects:	Irrigation > Furrow irrigation > Infiltration Soil > Tillage Soil > Subsoiling Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:57
Last Modified:	22 Nov 2016 17:49
Item ID:	1084
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/1084