21 Acta fytotechn zootechn, 22, 2019(1): 21–25 http://www.acta.fapz.uniag.sk © Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra Faculty of Agrobiology and Food Resources 1 Introduction Long-term and mainly intensive soil management practices have negative efects on soils properties and often results in their degradation include soil acidifcation, decrease of soil organic matter, soil structure stability, porosity, water retention etc. (Polláková et al., 2018; Kotorová et al., 2018). A fundamental factor which alter soil properties is soil organic matter (Szombathová, 2010) and therefore, the efective maintenance of soil organic matter in degraded soils can help preserve soil fertility. In last time, biochar has becoming a great of interest as a mean for carbon sequestration, resulting from its high content of carbon and long-term persistence in soil (Dong et al., 2019). Biochar is the solid product of pyrolysis, designed to be used for environmental management (Lehmann et al., 2015). IBI (2013) defnes biochar as: A solid material obtained from thermochemical conversion of biomass in an oxygen-limited environment. Biochar can be used as a product itself or as an ingredient within a blended product, with range of applications as an agent for soil improvement, improved resource use efciency, remediation and/or protection against particular environmental pollution and as an avenue for greenhouse gas mitigation. The biochar properties can be diferent in relation to type of feedstock source, temperature and time of pyrolysis, pressure and soil type where the biochar is applied (Jefery et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2013; Ahmad et al., 2014). For example, biochar produced from grasses at temperatures 250–400 °C had higher mineralisation rate (Zimmerman et al., 2011) than biochar produced at high temperatures (525–650 °C) and from hard woods (Fischer and Glaser, 2012). Biochar produced from manure usually has smaller surface area, than biochar produced from wood. The higher tempera- ture increases the content of carbon and the surface area in biochar while the content of oxygen and hydrogen decreases (Lopez-Capel et al., 2016). Under above mentioned context is evident that biochar properties and its acts in diferent soil-climatic condition are diferent. For farmers is, however essential whether the application of biochar improves soil fertility, increases crop yields and brings economic proft. Manufacture of biochar that would improve all soil characteristics and also bring the economic efect is not an easy task. Diferences in soil properties and crop yields after application of biochar blended with farmyard manure in sandy and loamy soils Vladimír Šimanský*, Dušan Šrank, Martin Juriga Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic Article Details: Received: 2018-07-07 | Accepted: 2018-01-18 | Available online: 2019-01-31 https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2019.22.01.21-25 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License In recent years, the importance of biochar application in world´s soils have increased tendency mainly due to its opposite efects. Therefore, the efort of many companies is based on the development of soil amendment which together improve properties and crop productivity in lot of soils. In this short study, we have verifed the efectiveness of biochar blended with farmyard manure named Efeco on soil properties and crop yields in diferent textural soils (1. sandy soil in Dolná Streda and 2. loamy soil in Veľké Uľany). Our results showed that the Efeco increased soil pH in both soils. In sandy soil, the Efeco more signifcantly afected sorptive parameters and soil organic carbon content than in loamy soil. Water retention in capillary pores after Efeco application in sandy and loamy soils was higher by 22% and 4%, respectively compared to control. On the other hand, more signifcant efect of Efeco application on soil structure was observed in loamy soil. The total crop productions in sandy and loamy soils due to the Efeco application were higher by 82% and 16%, respectively, compared to control plots. All in all, we concluded that the efects of biochar blended with farmyard manure difer mainly on soil texture. Keywords: Efeco, sorptive parameters, soil organic matter, water retention, soil structure, loamy soil, sandy soil *Corresponding Author: Vladimír Šimanský. Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agrobiology and Food Resources, Trieda Andreja Hlinku 2, 949 76 Nitra, Slovak Republic, e-mail: vladimir.simansky@uniag.sk. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3271-6858X Short communication