Excerpt
CONSERVATION tillage practices are becoming established in North American agriculture. Most procedures include the use of old crop residues on the soil surface to protect soil from wind and water erosion. Crop residues were originally quantified in terms of dry weight per unit area until conservationists learned that percentage of soil covered by residues correlated better with erosion control than dry weight (4). Additional emphasis on quantifying percentage cover has been generated by the Food Security Act of 1985 and Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 (17, 18) and the accompanying conservation compliance program. Residue management, either for program compliance, farm management, or research, will require appropriate residue measurement techniques.
Review of measurement techniques
Various residue measurements are currently in use. Some techniques are appropriate for general field surveys and others for detailed studies.
Visual intercept field technique. Intercept techniques may be grouped into lineintercept and point …
Footnotes
John E. Morrison is an agricultural engineer, USDAARS, Grassland, Soil, and Water Research Laboratory, Temple TX; Chi-Hua Huang is a soil scientist, USDS-ARS, National Soil Erosion Laboratory, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN; David T. Lightle is a conservation agronomist, USDASCS, Midwest National Technical Center, Lincoln, NE; and Craig S.T. Daughtry is a research agronomist, USDA-ARS, Remote Sensing Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD. Identification of products and sources ofproducts does not constitute a recommendation by the authors or their agencies.
- Copyright 1993 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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