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closeSuitability of cultivation as weed control mechanism
Posted by damiller51 on 05 Nov 2012 at 18:39 GMT
While the use of cultivation may work on the level ground at the Boone County location, it should have been noted in the discussion portion of the methodology that cultivation may not be appropriate for soils with slope that are currently bring farmed with continuous no-till to reduce soil erosion.
RE: Suitability of cultivation as weed control mechanism
mliebman replied to damiller51 on 05 Nov 2012 at 19:51 GMT
Zero tillage (no-till) crop production practices can be important components of soil conservation strategies but they also require greater reliance on herbicides than practices that integrate physical (e.g., cultivation) and cultural (e.g., diverse rotation) weed control tactics with herbicides. Zero tillage is growing in use in some regions, but it is not the dominant form of soil management for crops in the US, and it is not widely used in the north central portion of Iowa where the present study was conducted. The USDA-Economic Research Service estimated that in 2009, zero tillage production practices were used on 35.5% of US cropland planted to eight major crops (Horowitz et al. [2010], No-till farming is a growing practice, http://www.ers.usda.gov/m...). The same study estimated that in Iowa in 2005, only 22.8% of corn acres were managed without tillage, and that in 2006, 40.8% of Iowa soybean acres were managed without tillage.