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Stesso

Minimize Soil Compaction

2:45
28:45
38.7K views

At 2:45 in

What's wrong with my farm? Sustainable farming lessons might change your life

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What happens here

The speaker strongly advises against driving heavy vehicles like pickup trucks and tractors across pastures, especially when the ground is wet or animals are feeding. Soil compaction crushes the intricate network of pores within the soil, reducing air and water infiltration. This negatively impacts root growth, microbial activity, and nutrient availability. To understand the extent of prior compaction and its effect on nutrient cycling, periodic soil nutrient testing can reveal depleted oxygen levels and reduced nutrient uptake capacity. Implementing practices shown, such as using ATVs or strategic bale placement on high points (not low, wet areas), helps prevent compaction, preserving the spongy, soft texture indicative of healthy, biologically active soil that retains moisture and facilitates nutrient exchange.

Goal: This step details the negative impacts of heavy equipment and excessive foot traffic on soil structure, advocating for practices that maintain soil porosity and moisture absorption. Soil nutrient testing helps quantify the long-term effects of compaction on nutrient availability.

Tools and materials

  • ATV / Four-wheeler
  • Bale unroller (e.g
  • Greg Judy bale unroller)
  • Pickup trucks/tractors
  • Hay bales

What they say

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we've got 13 farms here in row now and so you really got to stay focused on you know i see people getting pickup trucks for instance and they'll drive across their pasture and not think a thing about it i'm like wait a minute no no no don't be doing that there's times you can if you're gonna have to get out there maybe bring some hay out or something but don't get in a habit of driving across your farm especially when the animals are eating you can do it on a four-wheeler or a side-by-side but pickup trucks and tractors are pretty hard on your pastures because there's so much life in the soil and if you think about a heavy piece of equipment going across that land what's it doing it's compressing the soil and you think greg you're getting kind of nitpicky there am i no because when you compress that soil and it rains that part of that soil drove on is not taking in moisture it's running off so i like to say i'm a hog for moisture i want to keep it all i don't want to give my neighbor any of it and so by having when you walk out on your land it should feel kind of spongy kind of soft that means that your soil microbes are working for you if you walk on your farm it feels like you're walking on concrete you've got a lot of work to do

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