The impact of the tillage systems on input-output energy, soil pulverization, and grain yield of barley

Abstract

This study was aimed at assessing the effects of tillage systems and tillage speed on barley grain production, fuel consumption, specific energy, and soil pulverization. The study was conducted on the agricultural college's fields at the University of Basrah. The investigation included three conventional tillage systems, including disk plow + disk harrow + roller (T1), disk plow + two passes of a disk harrow (T2), and moldboard plow + cultivator + roller (T3), and two reduced tillage systems, including cultivator + roller (T4) and cultivator + disk harrow (T5). Three plowing speeds of 3.70 (S1), 5.68 (S2), and 7.04 (S3) km h^-1 were used to prepare the soil for barley planting. The experiment was carried out using a random block design with five treatments and three replications of each treatment. All parameters showed significantly (p0<.05) different tillage strategies. Results indicated that plowing speed had a significant influence (p<0.05) on all parameters. Conventional tillage T1, T2, and T3 had the greatest values of fuel consumption, specific energy, grain yield, and the lowest value of soil pulverization at a tillage speed of 7.04 km h^-1.   The reduced tillage systems (T4 and T5) had the lowest values of fuel consumption, specific energy, and grain yield, they had the greatest value of soil pulverization at a tillage speed of 3.7 km h^-1. T1 achieved a higher grain yield than T2, T3, T4, and T5 by 10.76, 2.57,29.46, and 36.24%. The maximum and minimum fuel consumption under tillage treatments T1 and T5 were 33.78 and 19.77 L ha^-1, respectively. The correlation analysis revealed a linearly positive relationship between fuel consumption and grain yield (R = 0.96).