Conservation Tillage and Cover Crop Effects on Soil Moisture and Soil Properties.

Water is often the limiting factor in semi-arid cropping systems. Within Texas, adoption of conservation tillage continues to lag behind the national average. Furthermore, adoption of cover crops in semi-arid regions is hindered due to concern of depleted stored soil moisture. We have evaluated conservation tillage and cover crop effects on stored soil moisture and soil biological, chemical, and physical properties in multiple studies. Results have shown that organic carbon varies little among conventional and conservation tillage, even with the incorporation of cover crops. However, positive trends have been observed for other soil properties as a result of conservation tillage and cover cropping. Cover crops can result in reduced stored soil moisture at the time of termination, but soil moisture is typically recouped by the time of cash crop planting due to efficient water capture in these systems.