Particulates Generated by Five Cotton Tillage Systems

Particulates (dust) generated by cotton tillage operations can degrade air quality. Reduced tillage systems such as the USM, a stalk pulling system and a modified conventional system were shown to produce significantly fewer particulate emissions than a conventional tillage system. The Sundance reduced tillage system, however, showed significantly greater emissions. The Sundance uprooter was associated with the greatest emissions, while the USM implement and disking produced the fewest emissions. Emissions from rip-listing, shredding and mulching were not significantly different from one another. Both the number and type of operation influenced tillage system emissions, with measured emissions being half of those predicted by EPA’s AP-42 emission factor equation. This indicates that the equation cannot be relied upon to predict emissions from cotton tillage operations.