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Abstract

In order to study the effect of six various tillage and planting methods on emergence of irrigated wheat, an experiment was conducted at the Agricultural Research Station of Shiraz University located in Badjgah, North of Shiraz. These methods (treatments) were: Moldboard plow, disk, grain drill and furrower (T1) - Moldboard plow, disk, centrifugal broadcast seeder and furrower (T2) -Moldboard plow, disk, centrifugal broadcast seeder, disk and furrower (T3) -Chisel plow, disk, grain drill and furrower (T4) - Chisel plow (Two octagonal passes), disk, grain drill and furrower (T5) - Disk,
deep furrow drill and furrower (T6). A randomized complete block design was conducted with three replications. The means were compared using DMRT. Variables compared were: Number of plants emerged in a unit area, percentages of total seeds emerged, vertical seed distribution, emergence rate uniformity, soil pulverization, fuel consumption per unit area, soil cone index, field capacity for each equipment, and total time used for each method.
Findings:
1. The uniformity of surface distribution was lower in drilling than in broadcasting method.
2. Standard deviation of depth, in broadcast method was lower than in drilling method.
3. Maximum emergence rate occurred in T2, with the minimum depth of the lowest standard deviation.
4. Cone indices prior and after tillage operations up to 8-12 cm depth were not significantly different, but their difference increased beyond this depth.
5. Fuel consumptions were significantly different between all treatments at 99 % level.
6. Field capacity of centrifugal broadcast seeder was 2.88 and 3.47 times higher than those of grain drill and deep furrow drill, respectively. Field capacity for chisel plow was about 2.66 times greater than that of moldboard plow.
7. The time taken to perform treatments T2, T4, T5 and T6 were 10, 35, 16 and 53 percent lower than T1, respectively.

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