Maize and winter wheat production with different soil tillage systems on silty loam

From 1996 to 1998 five different tillage systems were compared in maize (Ze a mays L.) and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production on one experi mental field (silty loam - Albic - Luvisol) located in north-west Slavonia, Croatia. The compared tillage systems were as follows: conventional tillag e (CT), reduced conventional tillage (RT), conservation tillage I (CP), con servation tillage II (CM), no-tillage system (NT). The aim of the research was to determine the influence of those tillage systems on the energy and l abour requirement, and on the yield of the maize and of the winter wheat. C omparing the energy requirement to CT system, RT system required 16.1% less , CP system 26.9% less, CM system 40.8% less, while NT system required even 85.1% less energy per hectare. The labour requirement showed that RT syste m saved 16.4%, while CP system required 20.5% less, CM system 39.5% less la bour respectively. NT system saved 82.1% of labour in comparison to CT syst em. The first year greatest maize yield of 7.78 Mg ha(-1) was achieved with CT system, while other systems in comparison to CT system, except RT. achi eved not significantly lower yields. The second year greatest winter wheat yield of 5.89 Mg ha(-1) achieved CM system, while other systems in comparis on to CM, except RT, achieved not significantly lower yields.