Effects of Ploughing Techniques on Soil Hydraulic Conductivity and Infiltration Rate

Abstract

Abstract The study was performed on saturated hydraulic conductivity (SHC) and infiltration rate in the silty clay soil by means of two ploughing methods, moldboard and disk. The experimental treatments employed moldboard and disk plowing, three different plowing speeds: 3 km/h, 5 km/h and 8 km/h. Properties analyzed of the soil included bulk density, total porosity, penetration resistance, hydraulic conductivity and infiltration rate. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to obtain evidence for differences that might exist between these treatments. The speed differences between moldboard plowing techniques were significant (F = 11.983, p = 0.003) as were the ones in bulk density and total porosity at each (F value for moldboard = 11.983, p = 0.003). But there were no significant differences in penetration resistance (F = 17.805, p = 0.001), hydraulic conductivity (F = 0.384, p = 0.544) or infiltration rate (F = 0.87, p = 30.824132) among plowing speeds for these statistics. By the same token, meaningful differences in any of the parameters studied were not found: among three different speeds with disk plowing techniques bulk density and total porosity (F = 1.561, p = 0.242); penetration resistance (F = 0.413, p = 0.669); hydraulic conductivity (F = 0.503, p = 0.614); infiltration rate (F=0.087, P=0.918) Speeds significantly affect the bulk density and total porosity in mouldboard ploughing technique, but no important difference is shown for disk ploughing at all observed soil properties. One important thing about extended research For the study of the relationships between soil properties and the rate of infiltration is how important the technique, speed and other factors may weigh in that conversion. Different conditions still require different applications of research methods on these types of questions so I recommend more work to be done here with new institutions.