Research Accomplishment Reports 2010

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Soil Productivity as Affected by Mechanical Influence

L.G. Wells, L. Murdock, T. Stombaugh
Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

 

Non-Technical Summary

Machinery traffic can cause adverse compaction of cropland that results in reduced yield. The purpose of this research is to develop a means of preventing adverse compaction of soil during reconstruction after mining and to determine an optimum procedure to identify and ameliorate adverse soil compaction in conventional cropland.

2010 Project Description

A second year of acquiring corn yield data from reconstructed soil plots was completed. Corn will be grown on the plots again in 2011 to complete a 3-year study. Publication of the results should occur in late 2011 or early 2012.

2010 Impact

A paper was submitted for publication in Applied Engineering in Agriculture which described the operation of a mechanical soil reconstruction system. The paper documents system capacity and performance characteristics. This information, when combined with results of corn yield studies, should indicate that successful reclamation of severely disturbed cropland is feasible and cost effective.