Abstract

MUR, Matilde  and  BALBUENA, Roberto Hernán. TYPIC ARGIUDOLL SOIL COMPACTION BY TRAFFIC IN A FORAGE PRODUCTION SYSTEM. Cienc. suelo [online]. 2014, vol.32, n.1, pp.1-12. ISSN 1850-2067.

Among the different processes that lead to the deterioration of soil structure, compaction induced by vehicle traffic seems to be one of the most important for sustainable agriculture. For a given soil, the compaction distribution in the profile is mainly a function of the texture, the applied load, the pressure in the contact area, the moisture content and the traffic intensity, being the last particularly high in forage production systems. In order to assess the effect of 2WD tractor vehicular traffic with a total load of 3810 kg on some soil physical properties and forage crop production, an experiment was conducted on a typic Argiudoll under conventional tillage with the following treatments: 5 tractor passes, 3 tractor passes, and a control treatment with no traffic. To quantify the traffic effect, the following soil properties were measured: soil surface infiltration, penetration resistance from the surface to 600 mm, bulk density at two depths, 0-100 mm and 100 -200 mm; and dry matter 3, 7 and 12 months after traffic. Penetration resistance was significantly higher for traffic treatments, showing increases for all depths and measurement instances. The greatest differences were evidenced for the first measurement in the first 100 mm, with an increase of 152% for 5 passes and 140% for the treatment of 3 passes. The penetration resistance is more sensitive to the effects of vehicle traffic. Higher traffic intensities cause decreases in dry matter yield of forage crop. The use of low axle load tractors in forage harvesting systems is an alternative that reduced but does not eliminate the adverse aspects of traffic on soil mechanical impedance and forage crop productivity.

Keywords : Penetration resistance; bulk density; infiltration.

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