Summary
This 20-year field experiment from Denmark examined the long-term individual and interactive effects of no-tillage versus mouldboard ploughing combined with fodder radish cover cropping on soil quality in continuous cereal production on sandy loam. While no-tillage improved clay dispersibility, aggregate stability, and plant available water in the surface layer, it paradoxically reduced macropore characteristics and overall soil structural quality at depth; cover crops ameliorated these negative effects on pore functionality. Notably, neither tillage nor cover cropping treatment significantly affected soil organic carbon stocks over the 20-year period, suggesting that the beneficial effects of conservation practices operate through mechanisms beyond simple carbon accumulation.
UK applicability
The findings are relevant to UK arable production, particularly for sandy loam and similar texture soils common in eastern England. The demonstration that no-tillage benefits are not solely attributable to carbon accumulation, and that cover crops can mitigate subsurface compaction risks of no-till systems, informs UK conservation agriculture adoption strategies and soil health policy frameworks.
Key measures
Soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in 0–20 cm layer; clay dispersibility (CD); wet stability of aggregates (WSA); plant available water capacity; soil porosity; fraction of >30 µm pores; gas diffusivity; soil structural quality indices
Outcomes reported
The study measured soil structural quality, soil organic carbon stocks, clay dispersibility, wet aggregate stability, and soil pore characteristics after 20 years of combined tillage and cover crop treatments in continuous cereal cropping. It assessed how no-tillage and fodder radish cover crops individually and interactively affected these soil properties across two depth increments (0–10 cm and 10–20 cm).
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