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Fixing or recovering from soil compaction can take years and prove costly to your operation. But as Albert Einstein once said, "Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them."
While we can't confirm Einstein was referring to soil compaction, we can confirm you don't need to be the next Einstein to implement a genius-level management strategy to prevent soil compaction this season.
Save yourself the headaches of dealing with soil compaction by following these three steps to prevent it in the first place.
Already dealing with soil compaction? Don't worry, we won't leave you high and dry. This article also touches on three ways to help alleviate and manage existing soil compaction.
📸: @HeikeKampe via Canva/Featuring an agronomist with soil in hand.
Soil compaction happens frequently during planting, especially when heavy machine traffic and suboptimal soil conditions such as wet soil combine to create the perfect environment for soil particles to press together into a nearly impenetrable layer. This compaction impacts everything from emergence to eventual yield.
The dangers of soil compaction include:
Over the long term, continual compaction can damage soil health through loss of soil structure, increased water runoff and decreased water infiltration.
The typical factors that create compacted soils include:
The most detrimental forms of soil compaction include:
Below, dive into the details of how to mitigate your risks of compaction and learn how to address existing compaction issues in your field.
📸: BASF employee/Featuring an example of soil compaction causing poor planting conditions in the field.
If you feel stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to soil compaction, you’re not alone. It’s an issue that has vexed growers for decades. On one hand, planting in wet soil can exacerbate soil compaction and lead to costly repercussions on yield potential. On the other hand, staying off the field during wet, early season conditions could set you up for reduced yield potential and economic harm from delayed planting.
Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet solution to eliminate the dilemma of creating compaction when working in wet spring (or fall) soils. So how do you navigate this soil compaction conundrum? Here are a few steps that can help you get a jump on early-season planting (without setting yourself back in the battle against soil compaction).
The size of farm equipment has dramatically increased over the years with 500 horsepower tractors, full combines, and grain carts weighing between 18 and 40 tons per axle. As the weight of loads increases, so does the potential for machines to compact the soil well past the tillage layer.
Regardless of whether they are on tracks or tires, heavy axle loads (over 10 tons) combined with wet soil conditions can create compaction down 2' to 3'. Keeping axle loads under 10 tons is key to localizing compaction so it affects only the top 6" to 10" of soil.
Additionally, maintaining proper pressure and tire inflation can help minimize the damage from these mammoth machines traversing your soil. The pressure set on gauge wheels and closing wheels must not be too high, and tires must be properly inflated. You can check with your equipment and tire dealers or search online to confirm optimal tire pressures.
📸: @piyaset via Canva/Featuring an image of compacted soil.
If you suspect your soil is “too wet,” you can do a simple test. Grab a handful of soil and compact it in your hands, then drop from about waist height. If the compacted soil ball doesn’t break apart upon impact, it’s too wet. Even though it may not always be possible, limiting field activities when the soil is wet can reduce the risk of soil compaction.
Throughout the season, implementing proper crop residue management protocols and/or using reduced- or no-till practices can help improve soil structure and subsequently reduce the likelihood of compaction. Continually monitor soil moisture to ensure you are not on fields when it is too wet.
In an ideal world you would be able to prevent soil compaction before it becomes a problem (remember Einstein’s adage), but compaction is sometimes unavoidable and must be managed or alleviated to optimize your crops’ yield potential.
If you are dealing with compaction in your fields, you may see the following symptoms:
If you determine your soil is compacted, here are three practices you can implement to start correcting the issue:
Soil aggregate stability is the soil's ability to efficiently filter air and water through the soil profile. Increasing the stability of soil aggregates in turn increases the productivity of the soil. Reducing tillage and increasing the amount of crop residue left on your field can increase soil aggregates and reduce the impact of compaction.
📸:@oticki via Canva/ Featuring an image of a tractor in a field with heavy crop residue.
Since heavy equipment is one of the major culprits of compaction, it’s important to keep a careful watch on equipment traffic in your fields. Managing which areas of the field are driven on can help you alleviate excessive equipment passes that worsen compaction. Examples of how traffic can be reduced in compacted fields include using wider sprayers that cover more ground with fewer passes, transitioning to no-till to reduce the frequency of tillage implements and using traffic lane designs and/or GPS systems to manage traffic flow in the field.
Deep roots will penetrate compacted soils. Plant deep rooted cover crops like tillage radish or alfalfa. Research shows that several years of alfalfa can result in roots up to 20', making it a great rotational crop to break up compaction.
If your soil compaction is severe, deep tillage or subsoiling may be a consideration. If you choose to use deep tillage, this should be done when soils are as dry as possible to increase the amount of fracturing in the compacted zone. If you use deep tillage when soils are wet, it will actually exacerbate the compaction problem. Additionally, soil texture has an impact on when you can successfully use deep tillage to alleviate compaction. For example, the higher the clay content, the more important it is to till when dry.
Due to the cost and labor of deep tillage, you may want to consider selective deep tillage only in heavily trafficked areas of the field, like headlands where compaction is most problematic.
Although deep tillage can be an effective method to disrupt compacted layers, it also negatively disrupts soil layers and buries crop residue necessary for building soil aggregates and overall soil health (two key factors in preventing compaction in the first place).
While it is valuable in some instances, combatting compaction with deep tillage or a subsoiler is just a small bandage on a big wound; this doesn’t fix compaction issues long term. Use the preventive measures listed above to avoid future compaction and set your crops up for success.
📸: BASF employee/Featuring an example of deep tillage.
Experts are available to help you make your decisions. Reach out to your seed retailer, a nearby extension office agent, or your regional BASF representative to understand how to better manage your cropland.
Learn more about soil management practices:
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