Analysis of Soil Property Changes When Transitioning to Organic Crop Production.

To gain a better understanding of what occurs with crop production and soil changes when farmers transition from conventional to organic management systems, a field size experiment was initiated in 2001 in Northwest Ohio.   Overall, the experiment is addressing ways to maintain production and economic viability while building soil quality.    The treatments include three certified organic, a conventional no-till, and a reduced input conventional grain cropping system.  Each treatment has utilized different soil improvement strategies to provide crop nutrients and improve soil quality.  Soil data indicate that the organic systems are shifting to greater biological control of the nitrogen cycle.  The no-till system showed significant differences in pH, soil microbial biomass, and active carbon when compared to the reduced input and organic systems.  After five years of applying high amounts of commercial fertilizer and pesticides, the no-till system pH was 5.36 in the 1-6 inch deep zone.  This compares to 5.8 in the reduced input system and over 6.0 in the organic systems.  Also the no-till system had lower levels of soil microbial biomass and active carbon due to the absence of cover crops, manure, or compost which the other systems received.  These results indicate that tillage along with soil amendments can successfully maintain soil quality when compared to no-till without these amendments.  Soil quality indicators in the no-till system might also improve if given more years of testing.