Tag Archives: soil deformation

1163–1176 G.F. Botta, D.L. Antille, F. Bienvenido, D. Rivero, E.A. Avila-Pedraza, E.E. Contessotto, D.G. Ghelfi, A.I. Nistal, F.M. Pelizzari, L. Rocha-Meneses and A. Ezquerra Canalejo
Effect of cattle trampling and farm machinery traffic on soil compaction of an Entic Haplustoll in a semiarid region of Argentina
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Effect of cattle trampling and farm machinery traffic on soil compaction of an Entic Haplustoll in a semiarid region of Argentina

G.F. Botta¹*, D.L. Antille²*, F. Bienvenido³, D. Rivero⁴, E.A. Avila-Pedraza⁵, E.E. Contessotto¹, D.G. Ghelfi¹, A.I. Nistal¹, F.M. Pelizzari⁴, L. Rocha-Meneses⁶ and A. Ezquerra Canalejo⁷

¹Universidad Nacional de Lujan, Departamento de Tecnología, Ruta 5 y Avenida Constitución, AR6700 Luján, Argentina
²CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Black Mountain Science and Innovation Precinct, Clunies Ross Street, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
³Universidad de Almería, CIMEDES Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, ES04120 Almería, Spain
⁴Universidad Nacional de La Pampa, Facultad de Agronomía, Ruta 35 (km 334), AR6300 Santa Rosa, Argentina
⁵Universidad del Tolima, Facultad de Ingeniería Agronómica, Calle 42, Ibagué 730006299, Tolima, Colombia
⁶Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Technology, Chair of Biosystems Engineering, Kreutzwaldi 56, EE51006 Tartu, Estonia
⁷Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Montes, Forestal y del Medio Natural, Ciudad Universitaria, ES28040 Madrid, Spain
*Correspondence: gfbotta@agro.uba.ar; Dio.Antille@csiro.au

Abstract:

Soil compaction has detrimental effects on the physical, mechanical and hydraulic properties of soils, and affects important soil processes and function, and crop productivity. This work was conducted to investigate soil compaction impacts in integrated arable cropping-livestock systems managed under conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT). The work examined the combined effects of cattle trampling and farm machinery traffic on: soil strength, soil deformation, and water infiltration into soil. The following treatments were applied to soil (Entic Haplustoll, 60% sand) managed under CT and NT: three traffic intensities (1, 5, 7 passes) performed with light (2WD, 53 kN) and heavy (4WD, 100.4 kN) tractors, and two stocking densities (400 and 700 kg ha-1), respectively. Controls were also used to represent the condition of the soil without any effect of livestock or field traffic. In both tillage systems, soil penetration resistance (strength) increased and water infiltration into soil decreased as traffic intensities or stocking rates applied increased. There was a significant traffic intensity × stocking rate interaction, which influenced the depth and extent of soil compaction at depth. Despite these results, stubble grazing during fallow should not be discouraged as this practice offers mixed farming systems several agronomic and financial benefits. If stubble was to be grazed, the system would need to be carefully managed: (1) avoid ‘random’ traffic using permanent or semi-permanent traffic paths to minimise the field wheeled area, (2) vacate livestock from the field, or confine it to a sacrificial area, when the soil water content exceeds a critical level above which
soil damage is likely, and (3) maintain more than 60%–70% ground cover. Tillage repair treatments can be targeted to those sacrificial or ‘hot-spots’ areas so that localised, as supposed to widespread, compaction problems are rectified before the next crop is established.

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