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There is concern about the build-up of compaction in the soils of Britain under arable crops. An experiment was designed with the aim of establishing a relationship between wheeling pressure and soil and crop responses, such that damaging levels of compaction caused by traffic could be identified.
An Evesham series soil with 60% clay content, typical of many arable soils in Britain, was selected for the experiment and three levels of wheel compaction (0,0.8 and 2.5 bar) were imposed in conjunction with direct drilling and shallow tine cultivation for winter wheat. The normal and low ground pressure (LGP) systems (2-5 and 0.8 bar, respectively) used conventional tractors and equipment which were fitted with additional tyres at low inflation pressure for LGP operation. The zero traffic system operated from permanent tramlines, leaving 1.8-m wide unwheeled beds on the plot area. In all three systems wheelings were built up progressively throughout the season and from one season to the next during normal cultural operations.
After three years of using these systems, soil cone penetration resistance above 100 mm tended to be greater after LGP, compared with normal traffic. Below 100 mm, resistance tended to increase with wheeling pressure, but this was less marked on the shallow cultivated plots. In all cases zero traffic resulted in 125 1. Sci. Food Agric. (38) (1987-Society of Chemical Industry, 1987.
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