The effect of several soil tillage methods (plowing at a depth of 20-25 cm, chiseling at 30 cm and plowing at 20 cm plus sub-soiling at 50 cm factorially combined with three biennial rotations (wheat-sugarbeet; wheat-sorghum; wheat-sunflower) were studied between 2000 and 2005. Sugarbeet confirmed the supposed increased need for deep tillage, whereas sorghum and sunflower were less sensitive. With dry soil chiseling was enough to prepare a seed bed compared with plowing plus sub-soiling, whereas with moist soil, shallow plowing gave the best results in sorghum but not in sugarbeet. Plowing plus sub-soiling requires more energy and it could be justified only in sugarbeet. Wheat yielded better after sugarbeet and sunflower than after sorghum. Mini mum tillage was as efficient as shallow plowing for wheat seed bed prepara tion.