ABSTRACT
The adoption of reduced tillage techniques to cereal production has received the greatest attention from researchers. Reducing cultivation was seen to be of greatest potential benefit on soils difficult to cultivate, such as heavy-textured soils, and in the late 1960s and early 1970s increasing attention was given to experimenting with reduced cultivation and direct drilling on these soils. The principal motivation for the use of direct drilling or reduced cultivation in Great Britain is to allow the maximum area of crop, particularly high-yielding autumn varieties, to be sown in the limited period when the land is suitable. The principal incentives to the farmer considering adopting nonplow systems are the potential saving in labor, time, and machinery costs for crop. The main reasons are systems reliability, straw disposal, weed control, soil drainage status and soil structure, and compaction. Great Britain's maritime climate and the high proportion of heavy-textured arable land means that drainage status plays an important role in crop production.
