A rainfall simulation was planned for the 10 th November since there had been no erosion event at Klapy. However, before some technical problems could be resolved the air temperature dropped substantially so that soil surface froze and therefore it was not possible to carry out the simulation. Winter 2005 - 2006 in the Czech Republic was extremely long with an extraordinary amount of snow, the first being recorded on 19 th of November although it melted during the day. Occasional snowfall continued until the end of November but the snow layer was not sufficient to protect the soil against freezing. Further snowfalls resulted in the land being covered from the end of December until mid February. From the 6 th February air temperatures started to increase and the snow melted. As a consequence of the frozen soil surface there was practically no seepage into the soil and water flowed down the soil surface along the slope. The tanks filled up relatively fast. There was a difference between the conservation treatments and conventional tillage: runoff from SOWAP and FARM plots was faster and more voluminous than from conventional treatment especially because of bigger horizontal articulation of soil surface due to ploughing.

On the 21 st February the runoff water and sediment amount was measured and samples of water and sediment were taken. Simultaneously, on this date, soil samples were taken for the N- amount from all treatments. During the snow melt the tanks filled up once again on March 10 th . As well as in the previous runoff event the samples of water and sediment were taken and all of them were sent via the University at Cranfield to NRM laboratory.

On the 11 th April at RICP Prague-Ruzyne a workshop took place which was organized by Czech team of KASSA and the SOWAP project. The aim of this meeting was to inform both the scientists interested in soil conservation tillage problems and policy-makers from the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Environment on research results in this field and of the development of conservation agriculture that protect soil and save money of farmers. The members of Czech SOWAP team gave presentation on aims and results of SOWAP project.

On the 19 th and 20 th of April rainfall simulation experiments according to SOWAP methodology were carried out. Total runoff volume, sediment concentration and total sediment loss were determined. At the same time soil penetration resistance down to 0.5 m and gravimetric moisture were measured. The photos for determination of crop residues and weeds by method of image analyses were made as well.

At the present time, i.e. at the end of April we are preparing for the establishment of maize for silage on the erosion plots at the Klapy site. Prior to the preparation soil sampling for N content and some physical soil properties was carried out.

April saw the preparation of the plots at Klapy ready for the sunflower sowing which took place on the April 12th using a Kinze 3600 precision drill machine with 12 two-disc drill coulters. At the same time N & P fertilizer Amofos (12 % N and 52 % P2O5 ) was applied at a dose of 100 kg per ha.

After drilling the whole experimental area was treated with a mix of the herbicides Guardian and Racer. Before emergence the roughness of surface in all variants was measured. Sunflower emergence was registered about April 27th and no differences among the individual plots were found. During May and June vegetation characteristics, soil properties and weed occurrence were observed and in the first half of June nitrogen fertilizer and later fungicide were applied.

From June 29 th to July 1st the international ISTRO conference took place in Brno which was attended by participants from 17 countries. The manager of the SOWAP project, Mike Lane , also took part in this conference explaining the aspects and intentions of the project. This lead to an interesting discussion on the influence of conservation soil tillage on soil erosion. On July 28th the Czech SOWAP team visited the erosion plots in Tulln , Austria . The members of the team saw the field experiments with sunflowers and a relatively simple and low-cost but very effective system of runoff catchment. Professor A. Klik from the Wiena University explained the results obtained to date and their interpretation.

Before harvest, during September, soil samples were taken for bulk density, soil structure, moisture content and nutrient status analyses. Some samples were analysed in the Czech laboratories and other were sent to Silsoe and the Bracknell laboratories. Surface roughness on individual plots was measured as was the covering of soil by post harvest residues, plants and weeds with the use of image analyse.

Twice within the vegetation cone penetration resistance was measured up to depth 0.5 m. Unfortunately, no heavy precipitation has occurred within the Klapy locality sufficient to cause runoff and erosion that could be measured in the tanks installed at the experimental plots.

Therefore results characterizing the process and consequences of water erosion in our field experiment have not been obtained. The Czech team will be doing rainfall simulations in the autumn.

The SOWAP site was set up in 2004 in Klapy just outside Prague after negotiations with the managers of the Klapy Co-operative.  The site was completed in January 2005, with the installation of the weather station and tank sensors.  Thanks go to Pete Moseley for setting these up in the snow!.

In June 2004, the Czech SOWAP team presented the objectives of the project to a group from the Austrian Agrarian Chamber who were visiting the Research Institute of Crop Production in Prague . A similar presentation took place in December to an European project with participants from France and the Ukraine focusing on soil tillage technologies.