A new study indicates that heavy agricultural equipment is responsible for compacting the soil to depths below tillage levels, which affects crop growth.
By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com; Image by Frank P. from Pixabay
While most dinosaurs were the size of chickens – their size contradicts their sexuality in museums, so you don’t see them presented – many were as big as a tank and just as heavy.
For the sauropods, the heavy cow-like dinosaurs that spent their lives eating vegetation and avoiding predators, they were even bigger.
For fans of Jurassic Park movies (based on a pair of books written by the late Michael Crichton), they were the first creatures we spied on in the first movie, crunching leaves from the tops of trees – up on their hind legs to reach the most tender green.
Whether it’s the 26-ton Apatosaurus, the 33.6-ton brontosaurus, or the true 85-ton heavy Argentosaurus, there’s no doubt that when they moved, the ground shook and things were trampled.
It is this trampling due to being overweight that some of the aggregated communities are affected.
According to a recent study in the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) of 24 May 2022, researchers Thomas Keller (Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) and Danny Orr (Department of Systems Science) environment, Switzerland Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich), agricultural equipment has become so heavy – reaching the weight levels of the largest sauropods – that it causes compaction of the soil in the root zones below the depth of tillage, which affects soil functionality.
It is true that our tractors and combines have grown larger, just as there is no denying that agricultural mechanization has revolutionized the efficiency of crop production. But, according to the study, higher capacity has led to heavier agricultural vehicles.
A loaded combine in 1958 weighed 4.4 tons, while its 2020 counterpart could weigh just under 40 tons. This is almost 10 times more difficult in the evolution of the combine.
The increase in the weight of agricultural machinery over the years is the result of increased power and capacity combined with wider cutting boards and a larger capacity of the grain tank, all of which provide improved harvesting efficiency.
It should also be noted that tires for agricultural machinery have also become larger, both in volume and width. With greater flexibility, it allows lower tire pressure depending on the sailing and traction load and prevents the entire kit and cab from sinking into the ground.
According to researchers, this is not a unique development. They point to animals as camels that have to “swim” over soft ground (sand) and have evolved with a relatively large contact area of the footprint.
The study states that “modern agricultural machinery belongs to the floating category, with a high contact area” – just like sauropods.
We know that farmers understand that soils are complex ecosystems consisting of fragile structures such as pores and pathways that allow water to reach the roots and air to circulate and allow beneficial organisms to multiply. With each step we take on our soil, we compact it a little.
However, researchers say that with the heavy machinery we have today, soil compaction is not just at the top, but deep in the subsoil.
In fact, soil compaction occurs 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) below the place where we usually cultivate.
This is important because the compacted depth limits where the plant’s roots can grow, as it seeks water and nutrients into deeper soil. Compaction also reduces the amount of oxygen that can penetrate the soil, which adversely affects soil organisms (and crops as well).
However, it is true that farmers will add fertilizers at a depth from which they can feed the root system of the plant – uh, how much fertilizer is nowadays?
The mystery of weight leads to a confusing problem, according to researchers.
Sauropods weighed so much and trampled plants and compacted the soil and subsoils that allowed their own food sources to grow.
Although we are not at a turning point in which our agricultural equipment yields negatively, researchers believe that changes in the design of agricultural machinery will help maintain soil structure or risk humanity to follow in the footsteps of dinosaurs.
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