After a 12-year differing tillage in a 7-phase crop rotation with lay, potatoes, wheat, sunflowers, lay, wheat and rye it was found, that mouldboard-ploughing (P) resulted in less weed. Crop yields were as high as in the treatment with ploughing after lay and chiselling after potatoes and sunflowers (B). Lowest yields were obtained without ploughing but using the chisel (G). Weeds, esp. grasses, resulted in a huge competition for crops esp. after lay. Profit margins were highest in B due to lower expenditures for tillage and lowest in G. Soil organic carbon amounts differed by 1,5 t/ha and earthworm biomass by 0,25 t/ha between P and G after 12 years. It can be summed up for this experiment that G was not sustainable due to weeds and declining yields, and that B resulted in best economic profit, increasing SOM content and seems to be a sustainable compromise
