Level 2 Detail of experimental conditions (what might be found in a journal paper or project brief in Hydstra)

Description of study

What?

Soil loss was measured under CT and NT grain sorghum on 4 soil types (loamy red earths; sandy red earths, Blain and Tippera families; and yellow podzolics)

When and Where?

The study was carried out during 1984-89. The region has a monsoonal climate with hot, wet summers and warm to cool, dry winters. The sites are located on 3 farms as shown in Figure 1.

The soils of the trial areas are:

 a)     loamy red earth, Tippera family.

b)     sandy red earths, Blain and Oolloo families.

c)     yellow podzolic, Ejong family.

How?

Prior to the trials beginning soils at each site were analysed for nutrients, contour surveys were conducted and identification of weed species was carried out. Herbicide application followed and was carried out in two stages.  Mulch measurements including the previous year’s crop and killed weeds were made at each site.

Planting was undertaken using a Mason Contour Flex planter at 75cm row spacing, incorporating plain coulters (450mm diameter) spring release tynes, soil openers with a sowing tube attached to each boot, four twin inclined press wheels, four infurrow press wheels and hydraulic markers.

Site measurements for twenty one days after planting were made as follows:

1. Soil moisture (gravimetric).
2. Soil surface and seed depth temperatures measured with a Fluke (52) microbased digital thermometer, designed to use J or K type thermocouples as temperature sensors.
3. Soil surface strength measurements were taken using a Furney Field Penetrometer with a l0 mm diameter head.
4. Soil movement within each plot was measured using a galvanised plate 200mm², pinned onto the soil surface.
5. Plant population, in a 5 x 1m quadrat.
6. Soil loss, a 100m section within each site was selected and the cross-sectional area of each rill measured to obtain soil loss figures for each site.

Project administration

Site identifier code: N/A

Principal investigator: Van-Cuylenburg HRM

Principal data manager: N/A

Principal organizations: National Soil Conservation Program, Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory

Data custodian: National Soil Conservation Program

Key co-operators: N/A

Data access policy: Research has been published but base data is not archived

Planned pathway for data: completed study, no evidence of formal database records.

Data warehousing: for ongoing studies N/A

Planned data upload frequency: for ongoing studies N/A

Key references and sources of this data synthesis

These data summaries have been extracted from:

1. Van-cuylenburg HRM. (1987). A comparison of two tillage systems on four soil types in the Douglas – Daly region of the Northern Territory.  Conservation commission of the Northern Territory Technical Memorandum 89/5.

Keywords:

Conservation tillage, erosion, cropping

Level 1, Level 3, Level 4 and Level 5