The influence of agricultural traffic on soil infiltration rates

J. Chyba¹,*, M. Kroulík¹, K. Krištof² and P.A. Misiewicz³

¹ Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Agricultural Machines, Kamýcká 129, CZ165 21 Prague 6 – Suchdol, Czech Republic
² Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Machines and Production Biosystems, Tr. A. Hlinku 2, SK949 76 Nitra, Slovak Republic
³ Harper Adams University, Department of Crop and Environment Sciences/Engineering, TF10 8NB Newport – Shropshire, United Kingdom
*Correspondence: chyba@tf.czu.cz

Abstract:

The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of agricultural machinery passes on soil infiltration rate. The experiment was conducted in a large covered area (Soil Hall) with the sandy loam soil type. Four compactions levels were applied: control, one, two and three tractor passes.
The infiltration measurements were conducted using two methods: Simplified Falling–Head (SFH) and Mini Disk (MD). The other supporting measurements were disturbed soil samples and cone index measurements.
Based on the SFH method it was observed that as the number of passes increased from 0 to 3 the infiltration rate decreased. The MD results also decreased with the increase in the number of passes. The bulk densities (at 0–0.07 m depth) increased with the number of tractor passes, under the conditions of soil gravimetric moisture content ranging between 14 and 18% vol. The cone index values at the depth of 0–0.05 m increased with the number of passes.
When comparing the results obtained using the MD and SFH, a strong relationship was not found. It could be concluded that the SFH method might be more robust and appropriate for determining the effect of the number of tractor passes on the soil water infiltration in these conditions.

Key words:

cone index., infiltration rate, soil compaction

Influence of soil cultivation and farm machinery passes on water preferential flow using brilliant blue dye tracer

J. Chyba*, M. Kroulík, J. Lev and F. Kumhála

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Engineering, Kamýcká129, Prague 6 – Suchdol, 16521, *Correspondence: chyba@tf.czu.cz

Abstract:

Objective of this study was the investigation of water preferential flow into the soilby brilliant blue dye tracer, under different soil tillage treatment and different soil compactioncaused by farm machinery passes. Brilliant blue dye tracer measurement was supported by coneindex measurement. Measurement was carried out on land divided into several options:a) controlled traffic farming (CTF) with loosening, b) CTF with deep loosening before plotestablishment, c) ploughing, d) ploughing with deep loosening before plot establishment. Forthe mentioned measurement options the measurements were performed inside and outside of thetrack lines of agricultural machinery. Representation of the brilliant blue dye tracer inside of thetrack lines significantly decreases at a depth of 5–10 cm for all variants. This trend is stabilisedbetween depths of 0.10 m to 0.4 m with colour coverage ranging between 10 and 20%. Aninteresting fact was that the colour coverage outside of the tracks without deep loosening beforeplot establishment was higher than measurement with deep loosening. The largest statisticallysignificant differences occurred at a depth of 0.3 m, while the most homogeneous groups (froma total of four groups) were found at depths of 0.05 to 0.1 m and 0.25 to 0.3 m. Cone indexmeasurement confirmed almost 100% increase in penetration resistance inside of traffic lines(2. MPa) in comparison with measurements outside of the traffic lines (1. MPa) in the range ofdepth from 0–0.16 m.

Key words: