Increasing the yield of oil and protein in spring rapeseed by improving primary tillage

The purpose of the study was to increase the yield of seeds, vegetable oil, and feed protein from spring rapeseed by optimizing the primary tillage system in the second crop rotation (soybean, winter wheat, spring rapeseed, and spring barley) in the Central Chernozem Region. The field experiment was conducted on the experimental field of the Lipetsk rapeseed research institute – the Branch of Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution "Federal Scientific Center, V.S. Pustovoit All-Russian Research Institute of Oil crops, in 2019–2022. The experiment studied four primary tillage systems: moldboard-surface, moldboard-surface with deep loosening, moldboard-surface with shallow loosening, and minimum (moldboard-less) tillage, the names of which were arbitrary. In the first, second, third, and fourth variants of the experiment, plowing, deep moldboard-less loosening, shallow, and surface tillage were carried out directly under soybeans, respectively. In the first three variants, plowing was carried out under rapeseed, and in the fourth, chisel tillage was carried out. When cultivating grain crops, surface tillage was used in all variants. Field and laboratory studies were conducted using generally accepted methods and GOSTs. The soil of the experimental plots and the weather conditions of rapeseed vegetation are generally typical for the region. It was found that, on average, over the years of the second crop rotation, rapeseed produced the highest yield of seeds (2.2 t/ha), vegetable oil (872 kg/ha) and protein (508 kg/ha) with a moldboard-surface system of primary tillage with deep loosening. In other experimental variants, these yields decreased, but significantly only when using a minimum system of autumn tillage.