Soil compaction is a serious problem for agriculture. Compaction reduces crop yield and can lead to water and soil degradation from increased run off due to poor soil structure. With increased pressure on the agricultural sector to produce more with less, larger herds and bigger equipment results in more compaction.
Compaction is now being taken seriously by the farming community and will only get more attention as demand for higher yields grow.
Many farmers have suspected they have compaction issues but have not had a quick and accurate way of measuring the problem.
A penetrometer is typically used as a diagnostic instrument to measure subsoil compaction of the soil.
The penetrating shaft is graduated every 100mm to measure the depth of the compaction.
Various studies over recent years have clearly shown the link between the measured compaction using a penetrometer and plant root penetration of soils with a range of compactions.
Soil compaction in excess of 300 psi has been shown to be extremely difficult for most crop roots to penetrate.
Given that the plant will form most of its root system in soil above the compaction layer in soils where compaction is close to the surface, the problem becomes one of the plant being subjected to the extremes of the weather and less stable moisture levels.
The use of the penetrometer is not an exact science. Many factors influence the success of the plants roots to penetrate beyond 300 psi compaction. These include such things as physical or biological forces, freezing, wetting, worm burrowing and natural cracks etc.