Tillage Study on Sealing Soils Results look Promising.

Here are the results of one of our tillage studies where we tilled the middles with a parabolic anhydrous knife at layby in soybeans vs an untilled check.  The moisture sensors had been in the ground for a number of weeks prior to the installation of the monitor on June 11th.  In the weeks prior to the monitor installation, the location received numerous small rainfall events delaying the completion of field work and monitor installation.  By the time we installed the monitor the field was ready to irrigate with average soil moisture ratings close to 100cb.  The rainfall events were keeping us out of the field but not replenishing soil moisture below 6 inches.  You can see from the ratings of June 11th, that in the plots where the knife ran, the rainfall penetrated the ground better than the untilled check. (0=wet, 100=dry)

The field was furrow irrigated on Monday, June 15.  We took moisture sensor data on June 17th with these results.  Overall all sensor values at all depths decreased signifying irrigation water penetration. The exceptions were the 24″check plots were no knife was ran, these values continued to rise, signifying irrigation water never reached this depth. The interesting point of these results reveal that when using the average soil moisture value to trigger irrigation, the knife plots value was 37.6cb, while the no knife check plots value was 79.6cb.  Utilizing an average soil moisture value of 80cb as a trigger point, the untilled check would need to be irrigated again soon.

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