Reply to Comments on "Long-term Tillage Effects on Interrow Runoff and Infiltration"

loam soil is hardly consolidated. In fact, it is about average for an undisturbed soil of that texture. In addition, the 10year-old no-tillage plots maintained a higher average infiltration rate after 15 min of runoff in wheel-tracked areas than either tilled system after a single, four-day-old compaction event. We are told nothing about conditions the rest of the year, nor the effects of subsequent rainfall and compaction events. What we do know is that a freshly tilled soil, if protected from an implement wheel, has a lower bulk density and slightly higher infiltration rate for the first artificial rainfall event on a microplot of 50 by 100 cm. We challenge the authors to repeat their measurements of bulk density and infiltration prior to fall tillage. That comparison might be more representative of long-term tillage effects.