Soil quality and crop productivity as affected by different soil management systems in organic agriculture

Compost prepared on-farm based on plant residues may be an alternative for manure from extensive
conventional livestock systems. In a multi-year field trial, we compared two soil management strategies: 1) farm compost application combined with reduced tillage and 2) animal manure incorporated by conventional mouldboard ploughing. Benefits for crop performance of both systems depended on the crop used in the rotation and the weather. A wet spring season caused the spring barley crop in the reduced tillage system to fail. The system showed a good potato yield due to a better youth growth, however. After one 4-year rotation, soil organic carbon content and pH of the upper 0-10 cm soil layer was ca 20% and 0.5 unit higher for farm compost compared to the farmyard manure treatment. The combination of compost application and reduced tillage proved to be a promising soil management strategy.