Different Strategies to Alleviate Soil Compaction Risk During Tillage Operations

Compaction causes soil degradation, but different strategies can help to mitigate this phenomenon, such as increasing soil strength under traffic and decreasing soil stress due to equipment features. Controlled traffic farming enhances soil compaction mitigation by confining all equipment transit to the traffic lane. Crop seedbeds remain undisturbed, improving crop performance and increasing yield. Controlled traffic needs equipment standardization for all operations, from tillage to harvest, which can overcomplicate equipment travel on public roads and use of contractors. This study investigates three strategies to alleviate soil compaction risk during tillage: Random traffic with tracks, with wheels and controlled traffic farming. Three scenarios were compared by using the following traffic indexes: Rut Length, Traffic Intensity, Mechanization Degree, and Field Load Index. Soil stresses in specific scenarios were calculated with the Terranimo® model. Collecting soil bulk density, penetrometer resistance, working time analysis, field traffic analysis and fuel consumption with telemetry was completed on a real scale thanks to a 19 ha field test on a farm in northeast Italy. The soil stress is higher in the Controlled traffic than in the other two random traffic scenarios due to the narrow width of the wheels used to decrease the trafficked area. The field index Ruth Length shows a higher value in CT caused by a lower working width. On Mechanization Degree the RT scenario has a 47% increase compared to CT and 21% more than RW due to the high power used. Lower bulk density and Cone Index were found in CT seedbed. CT shows a decrease in fuel consumption and CO2 emission due to higher traction efficiency.