The minimum tillage system allows little soil movement, fewer farm operations without incorporation of crop residues, thus, it has advantages due to lower cost of preparation and the reduction of soil and water losses. This study aimed to analyze the yield of dry mass of intercropping forage (millet+pigeonpea-DM) as a function of soil physical characteristics in the crop year 2006/2007. The experiment was conducted in the Teaching and Research Farm of the Faculty of Engineering of Ilha Solteira, SP, Brazil, FEIS/UNESP, located in the Brazilian Cerrado conditions. Soil penetration resistance (PR), gravimetric moisture (GM), volumetric water content (VW) and bulk density (BD) at depths of 0 to 0.10 m, 0 0.10 to 0.20 m and 0.20 to 0.30 m were determined. A trial consisting of 117 sampling points in an Oxisol under center pivot was carried out in an experimental area of 1600 m² under minimum tillage. The results were initially evaluated by descriptive statistics of the attributes and simple linear correlations between them, and finally, by geostatistical analysis. The spatial correlations showed that the attribute that best explains the yield of dry mass of the intercropping species was the density of the soil layer from 0.20 to 0.30 m, with an inverse correlation, indicating that the species grows well in dense soils.
green manure; minimum tillage; intercropping; Pennisetum glaucum (L) Leeke; Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp
