The effect of barly residue management on some of the plant and soil characteristics in rotation of barly-corn

Crop residue management needs great attention as the environmental problems of stubble burning and shortage of organic matter in the soil become more severe. Four crop residue management in barley standing stubble including burning, burying, incorporating and leaving on the surface were compared during four years study in Isfahan Kabootarabad agricultural research station. The experiment was conducted by using a randomized complete block design with six treatments and three replications. Tillage treatments consisted of 1) burning barley stubble+ moldboard plowing to a depth of 25 cm + disking (MPB) 2) shredding the stubble+ moldboard plowing to depth of 25cm+disking(MPC) 3) incorporation of the stubble by plowing to a depth of 25 +disking,(MPS) 4) chisel plowing to depth of 10cm+mixing the stubble with the soil surface with rotary tiller(CPC) 5) shredding barely stubble + planting by direct drill (NCM) and 6) shredding the stubble + hand planting in rows(NCM).The Tillage treatmeants for corn (second crop) were applied in the same plot every year where plots were conventianlly plowed every year for the first crop(barely). The results of the first year showed that no-tillage treatments reduced the yield due to insufficient contact of seed and soil which caused inadequate number of seedling per square meter. However, providing a better contact of seed and soil in subsequent years resulted no significant difference in yield of no-tillage with other systems. There was also no significant difference in yield and other crop establishment parameters between other treatments during the four years of the study. The incorporation, leaving the residue on the surface and burying to a depth of 25 cm resulted in 20, 18, 13 percent increase in average organic matter compared with the burning respectively after four years of experiment. Results also showed that earthworm population under conventional method (MPB) was significantly lower than no-till and reduced-till treatments. Four year results of the study indicated that the forage corn production under no-tillage and reduced tillage had no adverse effect on biomass yield and can be alternative methods for current tillage method. Keyword: Residue management, Barely-corn, Tillage