Long-term and short-term strategies for for soil quality - Tygerhoek
This experiment has been added by the GLTEN Curators using existing published sources.
- Local identifier
- 4.PS/SR/S/JL3
- Years operational
- 2007—
- Objective
- To explore long-term yield trends in different cropping systems under management practices representative of common practices among local farmers; two sites compared.
- Description
- Long-term soil tillage and crop rotation trials initiated in 2007 in the Mediterranean climate region of South Africa. These trials are ongoing and will continue until at least 2023. The experiment is duplicated at Langgewens research farm. Both regions are important grain-producing regions, but differ in terms of rainfall amount and distribution.
- Data Access Statement
- Available to any researcher on request
- Data Access Notes
- Research Data Agreement Form T&C to be completed: All data are supplied with limited distribution rights. Data supplied by the Department may not be copied, displayed, redistributed or sold in any form to any other bodies/parties outside our organisation / department, without prior Departmental approval. Data sets supplied, including those of which the Department is not the custodian, may only be used for projects assigned/approved by the Western Cape Government. The Department cannot be held responsible for any errors, which may occur in provided data sets.
- Data license
- Don't know
- Data policy
- Don't know
- Organizations
- The Winter Cereal Trust of South Africafunding agencyWestern Cape Department of Agriculture Tygerhoek Research Farmresearch organisationTygerhoek Research Farmexperimental research station
- People
Site: Long-term and short-term strategies for for soil quality - Tygerhoek
- Type
- research farm
- Local code
- 4.PS/SR/S/JL3
- Location
- Tygerhoek Research FarmSouthern CapeSouth Africa
- Geographic location
- -34.093176, 19.543677
- Visits permitted?
- No
- Management
- Fertiliser and pesticide applications followed local agronomist recommendations for each crop type, but were the same between tillage treatments. This approach was also applied to herbicides, and all crops in all treatments received a robust herbicide regime. Herbicide applications were the same for all plots of each crop at each farm in each year, but differed between crops according to crop susceptibility, between farms according to locally dominant weeds, and between years according to product availability and agronomist recommendations. Thus the herbicide regime differed between rotation treatments at each farm. Herbicide use was however consistent among tillage treatments, except that the pre-emergence herbicide trifluralin was not used in ZT.
- Soil type
- leptosol
- Soil description
- soil types included Cambic Leptosol, Lithic Leptosol and Rhodic Lixisol. The soil is a sandy-loam and soil has a high stone content. The soil is shale-derived and shallow (approximately 400 mm deep).
- Soil properties
Variable Depth Value (range) Units Ref year Estimated? Baseline? clay content 0 – 15 Centimetres (10 – 25) Percent soil organic carbon 0 – 15 Centimetres (1.7 – 2.6) Percent - Climatic type
- cold semi-arid climate
- Climate description
- the southern Cape receives approximately 60% of its rainfall between April and September.
- Climate properties
Variable Time period Value (range) Units mean annual rainfall 450 millimeter
Design period: Current design period (2007—)
- Design Type
- Split-plot
- Description
- Sub-plot dimensions are 25 x 10 m. There are four-year crop rotation systems, namely continuous spring wheat (WWWW), wheat-medic-wheat-medic (WMWM) and wheat-canola-wheat-lupin (WCWL) rotations. The rotations are selected to be representative of current common crops and practices in the Western Cape, either a fully arable rotation (WCWL) or an arable-hay rotation (WMWM). Wheat monocultures (WWWW) are currently less common in the Western Cape, but are still present, and this treatment serves as a control for the effect of diversification. The tillage treatments were arranged along a gradient of soil disturbance.
- Design description
- The trials were laid out in a split-plot design with four crop rotation systems as the whole-plot factor and four tillage systems as the sub-plot factor, replicated in four blocks. All permutations of the crop rotation systems were present each year.
- Crops
Crop Years grown spring wheat Medicago sp rapeseed lupins - Crop Rotations
- continuous wheat
- 1spring wheat
- 2spring wheat
- 3spring wheat
- 4spring wheat
WMWM- 1spring wheat
- 2Medicago sp
- 3spring wheat
- 4-
WCWL- 1-
- 2rapeseed
- 3spring wheat
- 4lupins
- Factor
- Factor name
- Factor levels
- tillage process
conventional tillage
Tine harrow, offset disc plough or mold-board plough, and seed-drill with tine openersminimum tillage
Tine harrow and seed-drill with tine openersno tillage
Seed-drill with tine openerszero tillage
Seed-drill with disc openers
- Measurements
Variable Material Units Frequency Scale Comment weed abundance Not specified weeds data Not specified
Related publications
- Tillage practices affect weeds differently in monoculture vs. crop rotation (2021) Maclaren et al. Soil & Tillage Research https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2020.104795 [In English]