Tillage and application effects on herbicide leaching and runoff

Herbicides are key products in sustaining agricultural production and, to minimize agro-environmental concerns regarding their use, continued assessment of their behavior under different management practices is required. Leaching and runoff losses of four herbicides applied preplant-incorporated (PPI) were evaluated in two tillage systems over a 3-year period (1989–1991). Scant leaching during the droughty 1991 growing season limited treatment evaluations to 2 years. Herbicides were applied at recommended rates (1.7 and 2.2 kg active ingredient (a.i.) ha⁻¹) to conventional tillage (CT) and mulch tillage (MT) corn (Zea mays L.) fields on Hagerstown silty clay loam (fine, mixed, mesic Typic Hapludalf). Tillage treatments were defined as moldboard plow-disk-harrow (CT) and single-disking (MT). During this study, CT followed 5 years of corn production in a comparable CT system on this site and, similarly, MT followed a 5-year no-tillage (NT) system. Herbicides were applied preemergence (PRE) to CT and NT in the 5-year study and preplant-incorporated (PPI) in this study. Herbicide mobility in subsurface drainage was evaluated from herbicide mass transported to pan lysimeters installed 1.2 m deep. Surface drainage losses of these chemicals were determined from residues in runoff collected with automated sampling and recording equipment.

Leachate volumes were greater from MT than CT in 1989 and 1990 and exceeded all seasonal losses during the previous 5 years under NT management. Comparisons of total seasonal leachate discharged to pan lysimeters within and among studies and herbicide mass leached showed that timing of leachate-inducing precipitation relative to herbicide application was the key factor in regulating herbicide translocation. Herbicide mass transported through the root zone averaged from less than 0.1% to 0.9% of applied rates in CT and from 1.4% to 5.1% in MT.

Leachate-availability of herbicide residues and extent of herbicide longevity in this soil under MT conditions were similar to previous findings under NT management. Despite these behavioral similarities for herbicides among tillages, herbicide mass discharged per unit of percolate was most often lower for MT compared with NT, particularly in early growing seasons of comparable precipitation. Thus, the PPI treatment in MT appeared to reduce leaching of these chemicals compared with PRE application in NT.

Runoff losses of PPI herbicides ranged from 0.35% to 0.77% of applied rates in CT and from 0.13% to 0.28% in MT. Losses of PRE-applied herbicides from NT averaged less than 0.1% of applied rates; maximum yearly losses ranged from 0.06% to 0.18%. Thus, the character of the disked, minimally tilled surface provided a level of impedance to runoff that was greater than achieved with the tilled surface on this 3 to 5% slope, but less than previously obtained with an untilled, mulch-covered surface.