Dryland Cotton Lint Yield and Quality Response in Long-Term Conventional and No-till Systems in Southwest Oklahoma

A long-term dryland project was initiated at the OSU Southwest Research and Extension Center near Altus, OK in 2003 on a fine, mixed, superactive, thermic Vertic Paleustolls soil.  The study is a split-plot experimental design with three replicates.  Tillage types were considered main plots (conventional tillage and no-tillage) with various monocrop (cotton, wheat and grain sorghum) and crop rotations (cotton-wheat-grain sorghum, cotton-wheat, cotton-grain sorghum, and wheat-double crop grain sorghum-cotton) as sub-plots.  As noted above, one of the sub-plot treatments was continuous cotton, and lint yield and quality data from 2003-2015 for the conventional tillage and no-tillage continuous cotton will be reported.  Unfortunately due to persistent Extreme to Exceptional Drought (D3 and D4 categories as defined by the U.S. Drought Monitor), various components of the trial (especially the summer crops) failed in 2011, 2012, and 2013.