Soil compaction

Livestock and light machinery can compact surface soil, and agricultural machinery or natural soil characteristics and conditions can lead to subsurface compaction. Some soils have greater capacity to resist compaction or to self-repair following compaction. Compacted sub-surface soil restricts crop and pasture root growth. The department can provide technical information to assist landholders to reduce the impacts of soil compaction through improved management practices, such as deep ripping, controlled traffic farming, a change in stock movement and the use of soil amendments such as gypsum.

Articles

$Plough pan is blocky and fractured with a distinct upper and lower layer.$

Diagnosing hostile clay loam to clay subsoil

27 November 2013

Many Western Australian soils have cemented, dense or poorly structured clay subsoils or hardpans that restrict root growth..
Developing a controlled traffic (tramline) farming system

6 January 2011

Controlled traffic farming (CTF) is a farming system built on permanent wheel tracks where the crop zone and traffic lanes are permanently separated.
Identifying soil compaction

20 December 2010

Confident identification of soil compaction to restrict crop or pasture growth uses diagnosis combining visual symptoms of plant, root and soil features.
Setting common runlines for machinery in a controlled traffic farming (CTF) system

10 October 2017

Establishing common guidance runlines for all machinery operations will help minimise compaction and assist collecting good quality data for precision agriculture applications such as yield mapping
Soil compaction – background

20 December 2010

Subsurface compaction is a widespread constraint in Western Australian cropping areas.
Diagnosing sandplain traffic pan

27 November 2013

Sandy soils, particularly loamy sands with less than 20% gravel that are deeper than 25 centimetres (cm) are very susceptible to subsoil compaction from agricultural traffic.
The science of soil compaction

7 January 2011

Soil compaction is rearrangement of soil particles and reduction in macro-porosity and total pore space by stresses.
Soil compaction overview

20 December 2010

All surface and subsurface soils can be compacted; some more easily than others.
Broadacre agronomy webinar series

27 July 2017

In September 2017, six department research officers presented at the biennial Australian Agronomy Conference in Ballarat, Victoria.
Seeding into deep ripped or renovated soils

13 June 2017

Achieving good plant establishment after soil renovation can be challenging depending on the resulting soil surface conditions.