Crop performance as affected by three opening configurations for no-till seeder in annual double cropping regions of northern China
Zonglu Yao A , Hongwen Li A B C , Huanwen Gao A , Xiaoyan Wang A and Jin He AA Department of Agricultural Engineering, China Agricultural University, PO Box 46, Beijing 100083, China.
B School of Light Industry and Agriculture Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, No. 12, Zhangzhou Lu, Zhangdian District, Zibo, Shandong Province 255049, China.
C Corresponding author. Email: lhwen@cau.edu.cn
Australian Journal of Soil Research 47(8) 839-847 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR08052
Submitted: 13 March 2009 Accepted: 1 September 2009 Published: 11 December 2009
Abstract
The furrow opening configuration used by no-till seeders can have a major effect on crop emergence in conservation tillage systems. This is particularly important in annual double-cropping regions (winter wheat and summer maize) of northern China where large volumes of residue remain on the soil surface after maize harvesting. This problem has been investigated using 3 different opening configurations for no-till wheat seeding near Beijing in 2004–05 and 2005–06, and assessing performance in terms of soil disturbance, residue cover index, soil cone index, fuel consumption, winter wheat emergence, plant growth, and subsequent yield.
In this cropping system, the single-disc opening configuration significantly decreased mean soil disturbance and increased residue cover index compared with the combined strip-chop and strip-till opening configurations, but winter wheat emergence was 6–9% less, probably due to greater levels of residue cover and greater seed zone soil cone index. Winter wheat growth after seeding in combined strip-chop and strip-till seeded plots was faster than that in single-disc seeded plots and mean yield was greater. The most suitable furrow opening configuration in heavy residue cover conditions appeared to be the strip-chop one, which can provide similar crop performance with marginally better fuel economy than the strip-till opening configuration. These results should be seen as preliminary, but they are still valuable for the design and selection of no-till wheat seeders for double cropping in this region of China.
Additional keywords: conservation tillage, opening configuration, no-till seeder, winter wheat, crop emergence.
Acknowledgments
This work was financed by Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and China Agricultural University. The assistance provided by Dr J. N. Tullberg is acknowledged and thanks to all the postgraduate students working in Conservation Tillage Research Centre (CTRC), MOA, who provided their input to this work.
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