Effects of mixed cropping farming systems on changes in soil properties on the Canterbury Plains
Before European settlement, most of the 750,000 ha of land comprising the Canterbury Plains was under native tussock grassland with pockets of podocarp forest. The dominant land use today is mixed cropping in which cereals and cash crops are grown for 2 to 4 years followed by grass-clover pasture for 2 to 4 years. These cropping rotations are generally too short for either a substantial build-up in soil organic matter under pasture or its breakdown under arable cropping to occur.