Fall Chiseling for Annual Cropping of Spring Wheat in the Intermountain Dryland Region

Massee, T.W. and Siddoway, F.H. (1969) Fall Chiseling for Annual Cropping of Spring Wheat in the Intermountain Dryland Region. Agronomy Journal. 61:177-182.

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Abstract

Comparisons were made among annual cropping, annual
cropping with fall chiseling, and a spring wheat-fallow
rotation with chiseling after harvest under a climate
with near uniform monthly precipitation of 23
cm. Because cropping season precipitation averaged only
9.1 cm, soil water storage before planting was necessary
to ensure crop production. "Annually cropped" plots
averaged 15.0 cm stored available water per 180-cm
depth at planting, whereas "annually cropped-fall chiseled,"
and "cropped-fall chiseled-fallowed" plots averaged
21.3 and 22.9 cm, respectively.

Soil water storage from the spring of the summerfallow
year until the spring of the crop year was dependent
upon the previous over-winter storage (r² = 0.65). When
this initial storage was less than 23.9 cm per 180-cm depth,
water in storage was increased by summer-fallowing.
However when the initial storage exceeded 23.9 cm,
summer-fallowing resulted in a soil water loss. As crop
yields were dependent on soil water storage at planting
time (r² = 0.68), it was possible to estimate in the spring
what yields would be with annual cropping, and also
what extra water might be stored by fallowing as an
alternative practice.

Nonfertilized, "annually cropped" and "annually
cropped-fall chiseled" plots contained approximately the
same amount of soil NO₃-N at planting, but only the
chiseled plots with their extra stored water produced
a yield response from fertilizer N. In comparison, nonfertilized
followed plots contained 1½ times as much
NO₃-N, and no yield response was obtained with fertilizer
N.

Item Type:	Article
NWISRL Publication Number:	0090
Subjects:	Dryland crops > Small grain Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:54
Last Modified:	15 Mar 2017 22:07
Item ID:	664
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/664