Tillage Effects on Soil Erosion, Nutrient, and Pesticide Transport

The objective of this long-term field study is to compare different tillage systems with respect to runoff,soil loss, nutrient and pesticide transport. Three different tillage systems are compared: 1) conventionaltillage (CV), 2) conservation tillage with cover crop (CS), and 3) no-till with cover crop (NT).No significant differences in total runoff during growing season were measured between the three tillagepractices. Overall average annual soil loss ranged from 2.7 to 8.4 t ha-1 with highest amount forconventional tilled and lowest for no-till plots. Nutrient losses from April to October were 13.7 kg ha-1 a-1for CV, 9.1 kg ha-1 a-1 for CS, and 7.7 kg ha-1 a-1 for NT. Corresponding values for phosphorus were 6.5,3.1, and 2.0 kg ha-1 a-1. Conservation tillage and no-till management were able to reduce pesticide lossesbetween 23 and 99 %.