Organic agriculture aims to build soil quality and provide long-term benefits to people and the environment; however, organic practices may reduce crop yields. This long-term study near Mead, NE was conducted to determine differences in soil fertility and crop yields among conventional and organic cropping systems between 1996 and 2007. The conventional system (CR) consisted of corn (Zea maysL.) or sorghum (Sorghum bicolor(L.) Moench)\uffe2\uff80\uff93soybean (Glycine max(L.) Merr.)\uffe2\uff80\uff93sorghum or corn\uffe2\uff80\uff93soybean, whereas the diversified conventional system (DIR) consisted of corn or sorghum\uffe2\uff80\uff93sorghum or corn\uffe2\uff80\uff93soybean\uffe2\uff80\uff93winter wheat (wheat,Triticum aestivumL.). The animal manure-based organic system (OAM) consisted of soybean\uffe2\uff80\uff93corn or sorghum\uffe2\uff80\uff93soybean\uffe2\uff80\uff93wheat, while the forage-based organic system (OFG) consisted of alfalfa (Medicago sativaL.)\uffe2\uff80\uff93alfalfa\uffe2\uff80\uff93corn or sorghum\uffe2\uff80\uff93wheat. Averaged across sampling years, soil organic matter content (OMC), P, pH, Ca, K, Mg and Zn in the top 15 cm of soil were greatest in the OAM system. However, by 2008 OMC was not different between the two organic systems despite almost two times greater carbon inputs in the OAM system. Corn, sorghum and soybean average annual yields were greatest in either of the two conventional systems (7.65, 6.36 and 2.60 Mg ha\uffe2\uff88\uff921, respectively), whereas wheat yields were greatest in the OAM system (3.07 Mg ha\uffe2\uff88\uff921). Relative to the mean of the conventional systems, corn yields were reduced by 13 and 33% in the OAM and OFG systems, respectively. Similarly, sorghum yields in the OAM and OFG systems were reduced by 16 and 27%, respectively. Soybean yields were 20% greater in the conventional systems compared with the OAM system. However, wheat yields were 10% greater in the OAM system compared with the conventional DIR system and 23% greater than yield in the OFG system. Alfalfa in the OFG system yielded an average of 7.41 Mg ha\uffe2\uff88\uff921annually. Competitive yields of organic wheat and alfalfa along with the soil fertility benefits associated with animal manure and perennial forage suggest that aspects of the two organic systems be combined to maximize the productivity and sustainability of organic cropping systems.
", "keywords": ["2. Zero hunger", "Organic matter content", "Organic farming", "Animal manure", "Soil phosphorus", "Plant Sciences", "Botany", "Plant Biology", "04 agricultural and veterinary sciences", "Horticulture", "15. Life on land", "Perennial forage", "Nutrient budgets", "630", "6. Clean water", "Agronomy and Crop Sciences", "Long-term crop rotations", "0401 agriculture", " forestry", " and fisheries", "Agricultural Science"], "contacts": [{"organization": "Wortman, Samuel E., Galusha, Tomie D., Mason, Stephen C., Francis, Charles A.,", "roles": ["creator"]}]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.1017/s1742170511000317"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Renewable%20Agriculture%20and%20Food%20Systems", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1017/s1742170511000317", "name": "item", "description": "10.1017/s1742170511000317", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1017/s1742170511000317"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2011-07-22T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.5281/zenodo.15303209", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-04-04T16:23:22Z", "type": "Dataset", "title": "Yield, soil and management data of the Frick long-term experiment on tillage, fertilization and biodynamic preparations on a Stagnic Eutric Cambisol in Switzerland", "description": "This dataset is part of the database compiled as an outcome of Work Area 1 in project OrganicYieldsUP. Variable definitions can be found here: \u00a0https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15276082 In Frick (Switzerland), a long-term experiment was established at the farm of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in autumn 2002 on a clay loam (Stagnic Eutric Cambisol). In this three-factorial experiment, a reduced tillage system with a chisel plough to a depth of 10 cm is compared to conventional ploughing to a depth of approx. 20 cm, a liquid manure system is compared to a compost manure system and the adding of biodynamic preparations is compared to none preparations. Biodynamic preparations had been assessed previously in system comparison experiments, however, their effect is difficult to elucidate separately in a system comparison approach. One reason for setting up this experiment was therefore a demand among farmers and researchers in early 2000 to disentangle the influence of biodynamic preparations from the influence of manure compost on soil fertility. On the other hand, it should be tested if and how reduced tillage is feasible in organic farming.\u00a0This dataset consists of plot data for yield, soil and management from 2002 to 2018. The crop rotation at the start of the experiment was winter wheat, sunflower, spelt and two years of grass clover. Sunflower was excluded after 2010 because of total yield loss due to slugs. For yield, total aboveground plant biomass is given for silage maize, grass-clover and cover crops, grain yield for winter wheat, spelt and sunflowers. Total nitrogen and phosphorus contents of the yield components are given as well. Weed data is given as total weed cover and/or total weed biomass in the years with row crops. For pests and diseases, Fusarium toxins (DON) are given for 2003 and slug emergence for 2010. For soil data, soil organic carbon content, total nitrogen content and pH are given plotwise for the layers 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm in three year intervals generally. Bulk density is available for some years and plots. This dataset has been evaluated and published in a research paper by Maike Krauss, Alfred Berner, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Perrochet, Robert Frei, Urs Niggli and Paul M\u00e4der (2020): Enhanced soil quality with reduced tillage an solid manures in organic farming \u2013 a synthesis of 15 years. Scientific Reports 10:4403, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61320-8 We are grateful for the financial support in running the field trial by the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) and following foundations: Software AG - Stiftung (DE), Stiftung zur Pflege von Mensch, Mitwelt und Erde (CH), Stiftung Edith Maryon (CHF), the COOP Sustainability Fund and the CORE Organic II funding bodies, being partners of the FP7 ERA-Net project TILMAN-ORG (www.coreorganic2.org).", "keywords": ["Organic Agriculture", "Animal manure", "Weed Control/statistics & numerical data", "Organic farming", "Nitrogen", "Yield (agricultural)", "Plant Weeds", "Ph-value", "Compost", "Soil fertility", "Weed", "Tillage", "Field experiment", "Crop rotation", "Long-term experiment", "Agricultural pest", "Liquid manure", "biodynamic preparations", "Organic carbon"], "contacts": [{"organization": "Grosse, Meike, Berner, Alfred, Perrochet, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric, Frei, Robert, M\u00e4der, Paul, Krauss, Maike,", "roles": ["creator"]}]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15303209"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.5281/zenodo.15303209", "name": "item", "description": "10.5281/zenodo.15303209", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.5281/zenodo.15303209"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2025-04-30T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "2618630843", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "Open Access", "updated": "2026-04-04T16:26:18Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2017-05-30", "title": "Limitation of multi-elemental fingerprinting of wheat grains: Effect of cultivar, sowing date, and nutrient management", "description": "Multi-element fingerprinting demonstrates some potential for tracing the origin of agricultural products but not for discriminating among crop cultivars and nutrient management (source, rate). With principal component analysis (PCA) and univariate statistics, we examined 19 elements in grains from two winter wheat cultivars (Hereford, Mariboss) grown with different rates of animal manure (AM) or mineral fertilisers (NPK) in a long-term field experiment and two sowing dates (early, timely).