Irrigation and Cultivar Effects in No-till, Cover Crop, and Conventional Tillage Systems in Arkansas Cotton

This field experiment was conducted in association with a long term tillage study established Fall 2007 at the Judd Hill Foundation Research Farm in Northeast Arkansas to assess agronomic and environmental impacts of conservation tillage systems. Component studies in 2016 evaluated the effects of irrigation and cultivar in no-till, cover crop, and conventional tillage systems. The experiment was a split-split plot designed as a 3*2*3 factorial (tillage*irrigation*cultivar) with three replications. Main plots were split into irrigated and rain-fed treatments. There were three cultivars being assessed. The study included monitoring of soil environmental (soil temperature and moisture), insect pest (thrips and tarnished plant bugs), and crop (COTMAN and COTMAP) as well as the evaluation of sustainability indices (Field Print Calculator).