• There is a scarcity of work on the biodiversity impacts of different pasture systems and other short rotation crops, despite the fact that they dominate agricultural landscapes (but see Almeida et al. 2011).

• For example, if tillage occurred during the rice phase of a rice?wheat rotation during five consecutive years, each wheat yield observation was recorded as the first year under no-till.

• The residual effect on the succeeding crop (sunflower) of a long-term rotation, which included a four-year lucerne Icy, in comparison with a sequence of annual crops, was investigated in a mediterranean environment (Central Italy).