Impact of reduced tillage systems on maize crop productivity in cold climate conditions

Abstract

In boreal climate conditions, the productivity of grain maize mainly depended on variation of meteorological conditions. Reduced tillage systems become widespread more and more last years. Decrease in primary tillage intensity results higher agroecological level but limits productivity. For this reason, a long-term (since 1988) field experiment has been performed at the Experimental Station of the Vytautas Magnus University, Agriculture Academy (54º N, 23º E). The aim of the experiment was to establish the influence of reduced primary tillage systems on maize productivity parameters. We investigated 5 primary tillage systems: conventional deep (22-25 cm) and shallow (12-15 cm) mouldboard ploughing, deep chiselling (22-25 cm), shallow discing (12-15 cm) and no-tillage. In tilled plots, maize crop demonstrated nearly the same yield. In not tilled plots, the yield of grain was on average 6.4% lower than that with deeply ploughed, but this difference was not significant. Difference mainly depended on significant decreases in stand density of crop.