The purpose of this study was to explore the migration path and loss characteristics of runoff and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in sloping farmland of yellow soil at each maize growth period under different tillage measures. Taking the down slope ridge planting, flat planting and cross ridge planting as the research object, the surface runoff, interflow and DOC loss under natural rainfall were discussed by combining field runoff plot and laboratory analysis. The results showed that: (1) The slope runoff and DOC flux at each growth stage of maize were significantly affected by rainfall levels, and increased with the increase of rainfall levels and the losses were the largest at maturity. (2) The surface runoff, interflow of 0-20 cm and interflow of 20-40 cm accounted for 78.98%, 9.05% and 11.97% of the total runoff respectively, and DOC flux accounted for 74.90%, 11.97% and 13.13% of the total loss flux respectively. (3) The amount of DOC loss on the slope of cross ridge planting was significantly less than that of down slope ridge planting, and the runoff of cross ridge planting was 0.93 times that of flat planting and 0.86 times that of down slope ridge planting. The DOC flux of cross ridge planting was 0.85 times that of flat planting and 0.79 times that of down slope ridge planting. The increase of rainfall levels would significantly aggravate the slope runoff and DOC loss. Surface runoff and DOC flux had the largest loss during maize maturity in the study area and the surface runoff was the main way of slope runoff and DOC loss, the cross ridge planting could effectively reduce slope runoff and DOC loss.