Engineering approaches to prevent subsoil compaction in cropping systems with sugar beet

There is a world wide concern about machinery induced soil compaction in crop production systems. Adjustment of field traffic to the prevailing soil strength conditions is a very promising strategy to prevent soil compaction. The use of low tyre inflation pressure and reduction of the number of wheel passes are practical ways to manage soil compaction. The adoption of such systems strongly depends on their technical feasibility and the costs involved in their implementation. Experiments in the Netherlands and the former German Democratic Republic showed that practical, cost-effective on-farm application of such systems is possible. The compaction of the subsoil deserves special attention because subsoil compaction is very persistent. Nature and mechanisation do not offer a sound solution to loosen an unduly compacted subsoil. Therefore mechanical stress in the subsoil need to be limited to protect the subsoil from compaction. Stress limitation includes limiting ground pressure and wheel loads and thus influences the general design of agricultural machinery. This paper concentrates on tractor plough combination, transport vehicles and recent developments in heavy self-propelled harvesters for sugar beet.