Project
soil conserving field traffic
Good Practice in agricultural land use (§ 17 of the Federal Soil Protection Act)
Implementing Good Practice of traffiking on fields
The Federal Soil Protection Act § 17 rules that soil compaction, especially in due consideration of soil type, soil moisture and soil pressure, caused by devices used for agronomic purpose, should be avoided to the greatest possible extent. There are three measures for prevention: besides crop agronomic measures and working systems the technical feasibilities of the choice and setting of the chassis should be used.
Background and Objective
Due to texture, soil moisture and utilization, soils have a different load bearing capacity and a different susceptibility to soil compaction. To reduce the ground pressure according to § 17, vehicle parameters, such as wheel load, contact area pressure, tire inflation pressure and number of paasages of the machines used should be adapted to the actual soil compaction sensitivity. That means for example for sugarbeet harvest, the total champagne area and the bunker load of the holding tank should not always be working to their limits.
Target Group
Policymakers, extension services, agricultural industry and agricultural practitioners
Approach
Status quo surveys and permanent soil observation plots (BDF) (by government bodies over long periods of time), give information about the severity and dissemination of actual soil compaction. Systematic mechanical load tests under a single wheel measuring device supplemented in the laboratory by in situ measurements under large agricultural machines on agricultural fields give more information about the interaction machine / soil.
Data and Methods
soil physical measurements (pore size distribution, air and waterpermeability , soil resistance, root growth and yield performance
Our Research Questions
description of susceptibility to compaction of soils; Effect of mechanical load caused by machinery on soil structure
Preliminary Results
locally adapted use of technology
Links and Downloads
AID brochure no. 3614
AID brochure no. 1585
Thünen-Contact
Involved external Thünen-Partners
-
Agroscope
(Reckenholz, Schweiz) -
Hochschule Weihenstephan-Triesdorf
(Weihenstephan, Deutschland) -
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
(Berlin, Deutschland) - Julius Kühn-Institut - Bundesforschungsinstitut für Kulturpflanzen (JKI)
(Quedlinburg, Braunschweig, Groß Lüsewitz, Kleinmachnow, Deutschland) - Kuratorium für Technik und Bauwesen in der Landwirtschaft e.V. (KTBL)
(Darmstadt, Deutschland) - Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
(Kiel, Deutschland)
Duration
Permanent task 1.2001 - 12.2025
Publications to the project
- 0
Saggau P, Busche F, Brunotte J, Duttmann R, Kuhwald M (2024) Soil loss due to crop harvesting in highly mechanized agriculture: A case study of sugar beet harvest in northern Germany. Soil Tillage Res 242:106144, DOI:10.1016/j.still.2024.106144
