A study on the effect of tyre inflation pressure on soil properties, growth and yield of maize and soybean in Central Illinois
Shaheb, R. (2020) A study on the effect of tyre inflation pressure on soil properties, growth and yield of maize and soybean in Central Illinois. Doctoral thesis, Harper Adams University.
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Abstract
This study was conducted with the aim of determining the effects of Ultraflex tyres operating at low and standard tyre inflation pressure modes on soil properties, crop growth and yield in a maize (Zea mays L.) / soybean (Glycine max L.) rotation for three tillage systems (deep tillage, 450mm; shallow tillage, 100mm and no-till) in Champaign County, Illinois, USA, from 2016 to 2018. The experimental design was a split-plot, factorial randomized complete block, with five blocks. Tyre inflation pressure and tillage systems were the main treatment plots and the 8 crop rows/plot, and a central non-trafficked inter-row/zone were considered as sub-plots. Data on soil physical properties, crop growth and yield were recorded. A novel tool X-Ray Computed Tomography (CT) was used to determine the effects on soil porosity with high resolution (98 µm) of undisturbed soil (soil core, 300 mm length) collected from the maize field in 2017. The results revealed that reducing tyre inflation pressure had shown significant benefits of managing soil conditions by maintaining soil porosity following tillage, together with lower penetrometer resistances. The penetrometer resistance in the upper soil layers was significantly higher in no-till than deep tillage and shallow tillage while in the lower soil layers the PR of soil was in the order of deep tillage > shallow tillage > no-till. The non-trafficked inter-row zone had significantly higher soil moisture content (P = <0.001) in maize plots in 2017 and 2018 and in the soybean field in 2017 (P = <0.001) and lower penetrometer resistance (P = <0.001) than the trafficked crop row in maize (P = <0.001) and soybean (P = <0.001) plots, respectively. In general, the heavily trafficked zone and crop row had significantly lower soil moisture content (%) and higher penetrometer resistance than the non-trafficked and reduced trafficked zones. The results showed that the use of low tyre inflation pressure had a positive effect on increased crop growth; for examples, plant height in 2017 and 2018 (P = 0.04 and 0.004, respectively), plant establishment (%) and the number of plants ha-1 of maize (P = 0.007 and 0.005, respectively) and soybean (P = <0.001 and 0.001, respectively) in 2018 were greater than those of the standard tyre inflation pressure. The depth of tillage had a significant effect on the growth of maize and soybean. No-till had a significantly greater number of plants ha-1 in 2017 (P = <0.001) while deep tillage had a significantly greater plant and ear heights of maize in 2018 (P = 0.004 and 0.05, respectively). Where for soybean, no-till and deep tillage systems increased the plant establishment in 2017 (P = 0.009) while deep tillage had a significantly greater plant establishment in 2018 (P = <0.001), number of plants ha-1 in 2017 (P = 0.01) and plant height in HARPER ADAMS UNIVERSITY ii M. R. SHAHEB, 2020 2017 and 2018 (P = 0.001 and 0.032). Less trafficked and non-trafficked crop rows resulted in significantly greater crop growth in comparison to the heavily trafficked crop rows. The yield data revealed that reducing tyre inflation pressure increased the grain yield of maize by 4.31% in 2017 (15.02 Mg ha-1 ) and 2.70% in 2018 (14.76 Mg ha-1 ) compared to the standard tyre inflation pressure treatments (14.40 Mg ha-1 and 13.76 Mg ha-1 , respectively). While for soybean, reducing tyre inflation pressure had a 3.70% greater yield benefit (4.25 Mg ha-1 ) in comparison to the standard tyre inflation pressure system (4.10 Mg ha-1 ) in 2018 (P = 0.021). Deep tillage and shallow tillage systems resulted in significant yield advantages over no-till for soybean in 2017 (P = 0.001) and maize in 2018 (P = <0.001). The grain yield of maize in 2018 for both deep (15.11 Mg ha-1 ) and shallow tillage systems (13.98 Mg ha-1 ) was 18.69 % and 9.82 % greater than that of no-till (12.73 Mg ha-1 ). The grain yield of soybean in 2017 for both deep (4.86 Mg ha-1 ) and shallow tillage systems (4.73 Mg ha-1 ) was 4.52 % and 1.72 % greater than no-till (4.65 Mg ha-1 ). Compared to heavily trafficked crop rows the less and non-trafficked crop rows had a significantly greater hand harvest yield of maize in 2016 and 2018 (P = 0.03 and <0.001) and soybean in 2018 (P = <0.001).The X-ray CT data of soil showed that the low inflation pressure tyre system in HT location resulted in a significant increase in the CT measured macro-porosity (4.66%) (P = 0.004) compared to standard inflation pressure tyre with CT measured macro-porosity of 2.87%. Adding the CT measured macro-porosity to the field capacity porosity of silty clay loam soil (39%) results in a total porosity similar to that derived b
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Divisions: | Engineering |
| Depositing User: | Ms Kath Osborn |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Nov 2021 12:59 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Nov 2021 12:59 |
| URI: | https://hau.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/17769 |
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