ABSTRACT:
By 1995, U.S. farmers who farm land classified as highly erodible and who wish to qualify for federal deficiency payments will be required to implement conservation compliance plans. Much of the cropland which is classified as highly erodible in Oklahoma is seeded to continuous winter wheat. Most conservation compliance plans include the use of seedbed preparation systems which will retain wheat plant residue on the soil surface. This study was conducted to determine the relative impacts of alternative tillage methods for continuous winter wheat on grain yield and economics. A ten-year study of six tillage methods was conducted. Grain yields, net economic returns, and production costs per unit of wheat were computed. Highest yields were obtained from moldboard plow based clean tillage systems, and lowest yields resulted from a no-till system. Net returns per land unit were highest for a clean tillage system. However, a disk system ranked second with net returns of only $3/ha less than those of the plow system. Of those evaluated, the disk system would be the most economical method for farmers who have highly erodible land and are confronted with conservation compliance. The no-till system was the least economical of those evaluated.
Footnotes
Francis M. Epplin is a professor, Ghazi A. Al-Sakkaf is a graduate student, Department of Agricultural Economics, and Thomas F. Peeper is a professor, Department of Agronomy, Oklahoma State University, 74078. Journal article No. AEJ-101 of the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, Project H-2086. Me authors thank Arthur Stoecker and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions.
- Copyright 1994 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
