Soil health unaltered by conversion from no‐till to occasional tillage

Abstract Achieving greater productivity and ecological sustainability of agricultural soils requires moving beyond conventional management practices. No‐till (NT) enhances soil health while presenting weed management and nutrient stratification challenges. Occasional tillage (OT) carried out once every 6 years presents a chance for alleviating these problems without altering soil quality and research in this field continues evolving. This study evaluated the effect of a change from NT to OT on soil health while relating their performance to native sods consisting of native prairie vegetation. The long‐term tillage study was established in 1970 as winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.)–fallow. Original treatments included continuous NT, stubble mulch (SM), moldboard plow (MP), and native sod. In 2010–2011, the plots associated with NT, SM, and MP were each split into two and assigned either NT or OT. Here, we used the original NT plots (comprising of OT and NT) and native sods. Soil samples were collected from 0 to 15 cm. Soil organic carbon, active carbon, respiration, and protein were not substantially different between NT and OT ( p ≥ 0.05). The same soil health indicators with OT and NT were substantially low compared with native sod ( p < 0.00001) and were of the order native sod > NT = OT. Depending on the indicator considered, soil health differences between tillage practices and native sod were variable with the difference ranging from 28 % to 182 %. For over 14 years encompassing two OT events, soil health indicators remain unaltered relative to NT, offering a potential solution to weed and pest management challenges associated with continuous NT.