Minimum Energy Tillage Systems

Abstract

Eight years of research in minimum tillage methods included eighteen tests at three locations. Different configurations and depths with a chisel-lister and lister only were compared to conventional tillage with disk, moldboard plow, drag float and lister in a cotton-following- cotton cropping sequence. The effects of tillage methods on soil physical condition determined by soil penetrometer measurements showed no correlation. Sometimes there were significant increases; never were there reductions in yield from chisel-listing. In ii general, there was no advantage to running the chisels deeper than 14 inches beneath the level of the previous year's furrow. Draft-fuel testing showed that preplant tillage by chisel-listing required slightly more than ¼ as much fuel as conventional tillage, and time and labor requirements were proportional to fuel consumption. Because chisel-list tillage leaves the field in a rough and trashy condition, seed placement and covering are difficult, but the extra effort required is compensated through the reduction in fuel energy, time and labor.