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Infiltration as a tool for detecting soil changes due to cropping, tillage, and grazing livestock

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

J.K. Radke  and
E.C. Berry
J.K. Radke
Affiliation:
Soil Scientist and E.C. Berry is Research Entomologist, USDA-ARS, National Soil Tilth Laboratory, 2150 Pammel Dr., Ames, IA 50011.
E.C. Berry
Affiliation:
Soil Scientist and E.C. Berry is Research Entomologist, USDA-ARS, National Soil Tilth Laboratory, 2150 Pammel Dr., Ames, IA 50011.
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Abstract

Soil physical and biological properties often change when different cropping, tillage, or management systems are imposed. Changes occasionally occur quickly, but usually become evident only after months or years. Infiltration rates are affected by several soil properties and may provide the most sensitive indication of changes in soil properties. To evaluate the use of infiltration measurements for detecting changes in soil properties, we conducted infiltration tests on a cropping systems experiment, a tillage experiment, and two beef cattle grazing experiments. In Pennsylvania, significant changes in infiltration rates did not occur until more than four years after converting from a conventional to a low-input cropping system. Infiltration rates were higher on 14th-year no-till plots compared with moldboard plow and chisel treatments in an Iowa tillage study. Earthworm populations and activity were highest in the no-till treatment. Infiltration rates correlated negatively with increased stocking rates in a long-term beef grazing study in Oklahoma. The number of earthworms did not correlate positively with infiltration in this study, suggesting a complex interaction. A short-term study of overwinter beef corn-stalk grazing in Iowa did not show consistent patterns in infiltration rate or other soil properties with different stocking rates. Infiltration appears to be a good indicator of soil structural changes associated with cropping, tillage, and management systems.

Keywords

beef cattlegrazingcropping systemssoil physical propertiessoil biological propertiesearthworms
Type
Other Feature Articles
Information
American Journal of Alternative Agriculture , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , December 1993 , pp. 164 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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