CORN, COTTON AND SOYBEAN RESPONSE TO REDUCED TILLAGE STALE SEEDBED SYSTEMS

Studies were conducted to evaluate cotton yield response to tillage systems; and corn and soybean yield response to rotation and tillage. A three-year (2003-2005) tillage study on a Leeper silty clay loam soil in North Mississippi indicated differences between tillage systems but no tillage by year interaction for yield, plant height and number of nodes. No-till had less mid-season height and fewer nodes per plant than the early spring Prepmaster ® bed system, fall bed-roller, fall Paratill ® (10-12 inch depth under-row tillage) + bed-roller and alternating years of fall bed-roller and fall paratill + bed-roller. The fall applied bed-roller and spring applied Prepmaster stale seedbed system yields were 21 to 24 % higher than no-till and equal to the Paratill treatments. A 5-year (2001-2005) study on a Blackland prairie clay soil (Catalpa silty clay loam) indicated no-till corn following no-till soybeans showed a rotation yield response 3 of 5 years with a 5-year average of 21%. There was no added corn yield response from tillage applied to the previous soybean crop. After the first two years (2001 and 2003), subsequent years (2003-2005) showed that no-till yield in both continuous soybeans and in a rotation with no-till corn were equivalent to the fall applied chisel-harrow (one-pass operation) reduced tillage stale seedbed system. However, the fall applied chisel-harrow system for the first 2 years averaged 13 % and 20 % more yield than no-till with continuous soybean and in rotation with no-till corn, respectively.