The agricultural traffic effects on soil and maize (Zea mays L.) yields under two different tillage systems
¹Universidad Nacional de Lujan, Departamento de Tecnología, Ruta 5 y Avenida Constitución, AR6700 Luján, Argentina
²Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Monte, Forestal y del Medio Natural, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, ES28040 Madrid, Spain
³Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Agronomía, Av. San Martín 4453, C1417DSE Buenos Aires, Argentina
⁴Universidad Nacional de La Pampa, Facultad de Agronomía, Ruta 35 (km 334), AR6300 Santa Rosa, Argentina
⁵Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Juan Bautista Cabral 2131, W3402BKG Corrientes, Argentina
*Correspondence: gfbotta@agro.uba.ar
Abstract:
This study investigated the agricultural traffic effects on soil and maize (Zea mays L.) yields under No-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) during three cropping seasons on an Entic Haplustoll soil. Cone index (CI), dry bulk density (DBD), soil water content (SWC), root dry matter per plant (RDM), seed emergence (SE) and maize yields (MY) were measured. The highest average RDM values were found in CT (60.6 g plant-1), while the highest value in NT was 48.0 g plant-1). After traffic, for the two tillage systems, the obtained CI results followed a similar trend to those of DBD up to 150 mm. From this depth, the values of both parameters increased sharply up to the 450 mm depth level. At 150 to 450 mm average CI and DBD values were higher than 1,680 kPa and 1,472 kg m-3, and 2,610 kPa and 1,677 kg m-3 for CT and NT, respectively. The average yields for the 3 cropping seasons were 9.93 ton ha-1 and 8.26 ton ha-1 for CT and NT, respectively. It was demonstrated that even using medium-weight equipment (479.8 kN), subsoil compaction could not be avoided.
Key words:
cone index, conventional tillage, crop yields, dry bulk density, no-tillage