Predicting soil workability and fragmentation in tillage: a review

P. B. Obour, M. Lamandé, G. Edwards, C. G. Sørensen, L. J. Munkholm

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

40 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Soil workability and friability are required parameters to consider when creating suitable seedbeds for crop establishment and growth. Knowledge of soil workability is important for scheduling tillage operations and for reducing the risk of tillage-induced structural degradation of soils. A reliable evaluation of soil workability implies a distinctive definition of the critical water content (wet and dry limits) for tillage. In this review, we provide a comprehensive assessment of the methods for determining soil workability, and the effects of soil properties and tillage systems on soil workability and fragmentation. The strengths and limitations of the different methods for evaluating the water content for soil workability, such as the plastic limit, soil water retention curve (SWRC), standard Proctor compaction test, field assessment, moisture-pressure-volume diagram, air permeability and drop-shatter tests are discussed. Our review reveals that there is limited information on the dry limit and the range of water content for soil workability for different textured soils. We identify the need for further research to evaluate soil workability on undisturbed soils using a combination of SWRC and the drop-shatter tests or tensile strength; (i) to quantify the effects of soil texture, organic matter and compaction on soil workability; and (ii) to compare soil water content for workability in the field with theoretical soil workability, thereby improving the prediction of soil workability as part of a decision support system for tillage operations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)288-298
Number of pages11
JournalSoil Use and Management
Volume33
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Wet tillage limit
  • dry tillage limit
  • plastic limit
  • soil properties
  • soil water retention curve
  • tillage systems

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