Mulching stubble-mulch fallow

Agricultural management that does not rely on tillage, such as bare-fallow and stubble-mulch practice, can greatly reduce carbon losses (Cambardella and Elliott, 1992). Moreover, converting tilled land to no-till agriculture can lead to rapid... 

Comparisons of stubble mulch with complete chemical fallow systems of farming have usually given results that favor the former system. For example. Black and Power (1965) reported that wheat yields on stubble-mulched soils were higher than where spray was used. Furthermore, neither chemical fallow nor combinations of chemical and mechanically-tilled plots resulted in more moisture conservation than with conventional stubble mulch. Wind erodibility was, however, less with complete chemical fallow soils, doubtless because of complete absence of tillage. 

Studies reported by Army et al. (1961) showed that the soil moisture content below 2 inches was not materially increased by surface residues. Evaporation losses during the summer months from both stubble-mulched and bare fallow soils constitute a high percentage of the total precipitation. A summary of many experiments conducted in the Great Plains showed losses during the fallow period of 76% of the precipitation. In other tests 83% of the rainfall was lost between the harvest of one crop and the seeding of the next (Mathews and Army, 1960). 

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