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peer-reviewed research article

No-tillage and high-residue practices reduce soil water evaporation

authors

Jeffrey P. Mitchell, Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis
Purnendu N. Singh, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, UC Davis
Wesley W. Wallender, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, UC Davis
Daniel S. Munk, UC Cooperative Extension, Fresno County
Jonathan F. Wroble, UC Cooperative Extension, Fresno County
William R. Horwath, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, UC Davis
Philip Hogan, U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA NRCS)
Robert Roy, USDA NRCS
Blaine R. Hanson, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, UC Davis

publication information

California Agriculture 66(2):55-61. DOI: 10.3733/ca.v066n02p55. April-June 2012.

NALT Keywords

agronomy, conservation tillage, crop management, crop production, irrigation and drainage, Plant Products, plant residues

abstract

Reducing tillage and maintaining crop residues on the soil surface could improve the water use efficiency of California crop production. In two field studies comparing no-tillage with standard tillage operations (following wheat silage harvest and before corn seeding), we estimated that 0.89 and 0.97 inches more water was retained in the no-tillage soil than in the tilled soil. In three field studies on residue coverage, we recorded that about 0.56, 0.58 and 0.42 inches more water was retained in residue-covered soil than in bare soil following 6 to 7 days of overhead sprinkler irrigation. Assuming a seasonal crop evapotranspiration demand of 30 inches, coupling no-tillage with practices preserving high residues could reduce summer soil evaporative losses by about 4 inches (13%). However, practical factors, including the need for different equipment and management approaches, will need to be considered before adopting these practices.

author affiliations

J.P. Mitchell is Cropping Systems Specialist, Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis; P.N. Singh is Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, UC Davis; W.W. Wallender is Professor, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, UC Davis; D.S. Munk is Advisor, UC Cooperative Extension, Fresno County; J.F. Wroble is Field Assistant, UC Cooperative Extension, Fresno County; W.R. Horwath is Professor, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, UC Davis; P. Hogan is District Conservationist, U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA NRCS), Woodland; R. Roy is Resource Conservationist, USDA NRCS, Fresno; B.R. Hanson is Irrigation Specialist (Retired), Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, UC Davis.

author notes

We gratefully acknowledge Bert Garza, Jaime Solorio, Merf Solorio, Nelson Vallejo and Tracy Waltrip for their assistance at the UC West Side Research and Extension Center in Five Points. We also are grateful to the UC Water Resources Center for a research grant that partially supported this research and to Dwayne Beck of Dakota Lakes Research Farm in Pierre, S.D., for fundamental inspiration for this work.

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