Influence of Cover Crop, Tillage, and Crop Rotation Management on Soil Nutrients

Samuel I. Haruna and Nsalambi V. Nkongolo
Additional contact information
Samuel I. Haruna: School of Agriculture, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37127, USA
Nsalambi V. Nkongolo: School of Science, Navajo Technical University, Lower point Road, State Hwy 371, Crownpoint, NM 87313, USA

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-14

Abstract: Cover cropping, tillage and crop rotation management can influence soil nutrient availability and crop yield through changes in soil physical, chemical and biological processes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of three years of cover crop, tillage, and crop rotation on selected soil nutrients. Twenty-four plots each of corn ( Zea mays ) and soybean ( Glycine max ) were established on a 4.05 ha field and arranged in a three-factor factorial design. The three factors (treatments) were two methods of tillage (no-tillage (NT) vs. moldboard plow [conventional] tillage (CT)), two types of cover crop (no cover crop (NC) vs. cover crop (CC)) and four typess of rotation (continuous corn, continuous soybean, corn/soybean and soybean/corn). Soil samples were taken each year at four different depths in each plot; 0–10 cm, 10–20 cm, 20–40 cm and 40–60 cm, and analyzed for soil nutrients: calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), nitrogen (NO 3 and NH 4 ), potassium (K), phosphorus (P), sulfur (S), sodium (Na), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and copper (Cu). The results in the first year showed that CT increased NO 3 -N availability by 40% compared with NT. In the second year, NH 4 -N was 8% lower under CC compared with NC management. In the third year, P was 12% greater under CC management compared with NC management. Thus, CC can enhance crop production systems by increasing P availability and scavenging excess NH 4 -N from the soil, but longer-term studies are needed to evaluate long-term effects.

Keywords: cover crop; tillage; soil nutrients (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/6/225/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/6/225/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:10:y:2020:i:6:p:225-:d:370179

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().