@article {Hairston391, author = {J. E. Hairston and J. O. Sanford and J. C. Hayes and L. L. Reinschmiedt}, title = {Crop yield, soil erosion, and net returns from five tillage systems in the Mississippi Blackland Prairie}, volume = {39}, number = {6}, pages = {391--395}, year = {1984}, publisher = {Soil and Water Conservation Society}, abstract = {Five tillage systems were used on two Blackland Prairie soils in Mississippi. Monocrop soybeans were grown with four systems ranging from zero tillage to conventional tillage plus fall chisel plowing. A double-crop of soft red winter wheat and soybeans was the fifth system. One soil was a Leeper silty clay loam with less than 1\% slope, the other an upland soil, Brooksville silty clay, with a 3\% slope. Relative crop yields as a function of tillage were similar on both soils. There was no soybean yield response to fall chisel plowing. Minimum tillage and zero tillage reduced soybean yields significantly. The double-crop treatment produced the highest net return and was the most soil-conserving practice on the upland soil. Soil loss with the double-crop treatment averaged 2.48 tons/ha/year, compared to 6.53 and 40.13 tons/ha/year for the zero tillage and bare fallow reference plot, respectively. The double-crop treatment also produced the least runoff (11.48 cm/year), which was 10\% of the average annual rainfall. Of the five tillage systems studied, only the fall chisel treatment resulted in erosion rates greater than the soil loss tolerance of 9.1 tons/ha/year for the Brooksville soil.}, issn = {0022-4561}, URL = {https://www.jswconline.org/content/39/6/391}, eprint = {https://www.jswconline.org/content/39/6/391.full.pdf}, journal = {Journal of Soil and Water Conservation} }