The Effect of Different Soil Tillage on Grain Yield of Spring Barley (Hordeum vulgare)

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of different soil tillage on yield of spring barley from a long-term stationary field experiment. The experiment was conducted in period from 1990 to 2014 on loamy chernozem soil in a sugar beet growing region. Spring barley was grown in three crop rotations, always after sugar beet which was set after silage maize, winter wheat and spring barley. Four variants of soil tillage were evaluated: 1. ploughing to the depth of 0.22 m; 2. ploughing to the depth of 0.15 m); 3. direct sowing into non-prepare soil; 4. loosening to the depth of 0,10 m. Influence of experimental factors on yield was evaluated in 1990–2014. Influence of experimental factors on yields was statistically significant. The highest average yield was reached in the crop rotation – spring barley, sugar beet, spring barley and the lowest yield in the crop rotation - silage maize, sugar beet, spring barley. In all three crop rotations the highest average yield was on variant with ploughing to 0.15 m (6.68 t·ha-1) and the lowest on variant with ploughing to 0.22 m (6.54 t·ha-1). Minimum soil tillage technologies with direct sowing (6.64 t·ha-1) and loosening to 0.10 m (6.62 t·ha-1) had a middle grain yields. Results of this observation shows that lower intensity of soil tillage in case of spring barley grown after sugar beet, under conditions of the given locality, is a suitable alternative to traditional way of soil tillage