The influence of biological preparations on physical soil properties and tillage fuel consumption

Abstract

Different biological preparations became more widely used in agriculture to increase plants productivity, to accelerate plant residues decomposition processes and to improve soil properties. Change of soil properties has influence on tillage machines work process. The objective of this work was to establish the influence of different biological preparations on soil cone index, moisture content, total porosity and tractor fuel consumption for a specific tillage operation and to compare with control tests, when biological preparations are not used. The research was carried out in 2015–2016 in Experimental Station of Aleksandras Stulginskis University in Lithuania. The effect of three different biological preparations on soil properties and fuel consumption for deep ploughing and disc harrowing was investigated. The experimental results indicate that biological preparations influence soil cone index, total porosity and fuel consumption for soil tillage. It was estimated that for disc harrowing and ploughing of soil treated with biological preparations consumption of the fuel was up to 10–30% lower than in control soil, where biological preparations were not used.