Soil Loss from Conservation Tillage for Sorghum

Soil loss was measured from ridge-till, reduced-till (no-till plant and cultivate), no-till, and conventional-till grain sorghum on 22.1-m long, up-and-down-hill erosion plots. Soil loss ratios were computed from measurements for each crop stage of the tillage systems for use in the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) to estimate soil loss. Annual soil loss from the ridge-till sorghum averaged 5.7 t/ha compared to 7.8 t/ha from conventional-till and 3.3 t/ha from reduced-till. Greater losses from the ridge-till than from reduced-till were attributed to erosiveness of the higher ridges in ridge-till. No-till was far superior to the other systems in controlling erosion. Soil loss was 2 t/ha following conventional-till cotton. Significantly, no-till soil loss after no-till cotton was reduced to 0.3 t/ha.