Crop Yield Response to Precision Deep Tillage
2003
Experimental precision deep tillage was applied at 3 sites in central Kentucky with relatively welldrained
silt loam soils in no-till crop production with fields divided into 0.4 ha (1 ac) grid cells using
DGPS mapping. Assessment of soil compaction by machinery traffic was made using multiple soil
cone penetrometer measurements. Corn, wheat and soybeans yields were depressed in grid cells
with CIavg > 1.5 MPa prior to application of tillage treatments at sites 1 and 3, whereas at site 2,
where most of the highest average CI-values ranged from 1.44 to 1.49 MPa, the opposite was true.
In general, deep tillage resulted in yield improvement in compacted grid cells relative to compacted
cells receiving no deep tillage, increasing to approximately the same yields as cells with CIavg < 1.5
MPa . Cells receiving maximum depth (40 cm) tillage generally had higher yields than cells tilled to
the maximum depth at which CIavg > 1.5 MPa (precision deep tillage) at sites 1 and 3, however, the
reverse was true for double-crop soybeans subjected to limited rainfall. At site 2, tilled cells had
higher yields than non-tilled cells, with precision tillage showing the maximum relative yield.
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