Study of Different Tillage System in Shambat Clay Soil

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in the demonstration farm of faculty of agricultural studies Sudan university of science and technology (2010) to determine the effect of four tillage system on soil properties and machines performance. these four tillage systems are as follow. 1. Conventional tillage (disc plow + disc harrow + ridger). 2. Conservation tillage (disc harrow + ridger). 3. Minimum tillage(ridger). 4. Zero tillage. The experiment was conducted using the randomized complete block design with three replicates. The results obtained showed that the disc plow treatment recorded highest wheel slippage (9.8%),and high fuel consumption rate(13.04 L/h),low field capacity (0.176 ha/hr) and high field efficiency (86.46). The disc harrow treatment recorded the highest field capacity (0.665 ha/hr) and low efficiency (73.20).the lowest fuel consumption (4.38 L/hr) and wheel slippage (2.5%). The minimum tillage system (ridger base) recorded highest field efficiency (88.37%)and field capacity (0.665 hr/hr) and recorded lowest fuel consumption rate(5.9 L/hr). The analysis of variance showed that the effects of soil depth on soil bulk density were highly significant at 1% level. The effect of tillage system on soil porosity followed a reverse trend of its effect on soil bulk density . The statistical analysis showed that the effect of tillage system on soil moisture content was highly significant at 1% level.