Category: Soil Compaction

When talking soil, often the topic focus is on soil type, nutrients, moisture, or microbiology.But what about soil structure?As Steve Larocque, Alberta farmer and founder of Beyond Agronomy explains in this Soil School episode, the physical types of soil can’t be changed, whether it be sand, silt, or clay. However, how land is managed can… Read More

There are two key messages from this episode of The Agronomists: avoiding compaction and minimizing topsoil movement is well worth the planning and effort, because the alternative results in significant yield loss and is expensive to fix. To dig in (!) to the topic, host Lyndsey Smith is joined by guests Dr. Jeff Schoenau, from… Read More

Ahh, the wonders of healthy soil. From water-holding capacity, pest and disease regulation, to nutrient cycling and physical stability, a robust and resilient soil gives farmers a huge advantage in crop production. But what makes a healthy soil? How can we measure its fitness and whether it’s in top farming shape? That’s a question soil… Read More

More organic matter, fewer weed seeds and insect pests, and a nitrogen credit: that’s what farmers get when they put forage in the rotation, says independent agronomist Pat Lynch.From better soil health to higher yields, the benefits of forage — especially alfalfa — is a story that Lynch promotes passionately. On this episode of the… Read More

A soil with excellent structure will allow healthy root development, have good water infiltration, and support equipment; but compaction and tillage can destroy structure and create root-zone challenges. Controlled traffic farming — where tire tracks of all implements are focused on the same route — is one way to decrease tillage and overall compaction. What… Read More

The way we farm is continuously changing, through knowledge-transfer, new technology, and innovation. How farmers take care of farms and the land required to raise livestock and produce grain is changing too — for the better. Soil health may have become a bit of a buzzword in recent years, but that’s not to diminish its… Read More

This episode of Soil School is an interview with Jodi DeJong-Hughes, of the University of Minnesota, discussing how best to adopt strip tillage and avoid some of the common pitfalls farmers face when changing practices.DeJong-Hughes examines optimum season of application, controlled traffic farming, crop type, and trafficability when it comes to strip tillage.Listen on for… Read More

Cover cropping — and then planting into that green cover crop in spring — has become more common in pockets of the U.S. and Canada over the past decade, but the adoption rate has tended to be slower in more northern areas with short or dry fall seasons. These also happen to be areas where… Read More

It was a busy Farm Progress Show for Michelin as the tire manufacturer rolled out three agricultural tires at the annual farm tradeshow, located this year at Boone, Iowa. New from Michelin are the Agribib 2, Spraybib CFO and the TrailXBib. The Agribib 2 is an improved version of Michelin’s most popular agricultural tire, while… Read More

Wheat shows all, especially when it comes to the impact compaction can have on seed planted in to the headlands portion of a field.On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Wheat School, we catch up with resident agronomist Peter Johnson in a field near Stratford, Ont., as he looks for ways to combat compaction. In this field,… Read More