Dr. Manbir Rakkar assistant professor of nutrient management, took over for Dr. Stephen Culman at Ohio State University. She shared that Hoytville and Wooster have two of the longest running soil quality research experiments. Started in the 1962, over 100 research publications have been published on this research. This research was started by soil quality and no-till pioneers, Dr. Grover Triplett and Dr. David Van Doorhan, both deceased.
These pioneers had three basic research questions they wanted to answer. First, how much tillage, if any, is required to grow a good crop? Second, how do tillage and crop rotation affect crop yields. Third, how does tillage or no-till vary by soil type. All good questions, still being debated!
To answer these questions, they set up long-term plots at Hoytville on a flat (0-2%) heavy clay soil (Hoytville) and at Wooster on a silt loam soil with 6-10% slope. The tillage was continuous no-till, chisel plow, and mold board plow. They included crop rotations of Corn (C) – Soybeans (S), c-s-w(wheat), c-c, c-s-w-h(hay). They researched the soil quality changes…