Comparison of Different Soil Tillage Systems to Extend the Required Thermal Time for Second Crop Silage Corn Production.

Comparison of Different Soil Tillage Systems to Extend the Required Thermal Time for Second Crop Silage Corn Production

Engin OZGOZ, Huseyin ONEN, Hikmet GUNAL, Selahattin IPTAS

Gaziosmanpasa University, Faculty of Agriculture, 60240 Tokat, Turkey.

 The aim of this study was to determine the appropriate soil tillage method that would enable us to efficiently use the second crop silage corn production period, and provide opportunity to extend the thermal time required for corn.  The soil tillage methods used were; (Y1) Irrigation + moldboard plowing + disking, (Y2) moldboard plowing + rotary tilling, (Y3) rotary tilling, (Y4) chisel plowing + disking, and (Y5) direct seeding. Soil moisture content, soil bulk density, penetration resistance, mean emergence dates, percentage of emerged seedlings were determined to evaluate the soil tillage methods in both herbicides applied (HA) and no herbicide (NH) parcels. Soil tillage methods significantly affected the soil moisture content and penetration resistance at 0-10 cm soil depth, and penetration resistance was also affected at 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm depths. The lowest emergence duration (12.31 days) was occurred with Y1 application; however, the difference was not statistically significant between the applications. The lowest and the highest seedling emergence percentages were obtained with Y2 (65.13%) and Y3 (81.73%) applications. The highest and the lowest green hay yields in NH parcels were obtained with Y2 (4671.13 kgda^-1) - Y1 (5751.19 kgda^-1) and in HA parcels were Y4 (4974.55 kgda^-1) and Y1 (6172.92 kgda^-1). The results indicated that soil tillage methods allowed early planting enabled to extend the thermal time in the transition belt of Tokat-Turkey.

Keywords: Soil tillage, silage corn, weed control, thermal time, transition climate