Influence of tractor slippage on crop yield

Abstract

The tractor under draft causes slippage of the driving wheels, which negatively affects the soil structure and soil function, influences the plant growth and yield. Tires compress and compact the surface layer, erode the soil, and reduce liveliness of plant roots. Driving of tractors is unavoidable but may be more friendly to the environment. The aim of the research was to establish the dependence of the tire contact area and tractor slip on the plant yield, maintaining a constant draft. The investigative tractor “CASE MX135” was used in this research. The field test was performed by towing another tractor with implements for constant draft load. Several soil plots were compressed track to track separately, changing the tire contact area on each plot. Different tire contact area was achieved by changing the tire pressure and adding double wheels. The correlation of the adjustable contact area and wheel slip and crop yield was developed by comparing to the control plot without soil compression. The results show that enlargement of the tire contact area can reduce the slippage by 19,8% at constant draft and improve the crop yield, by reducing soil damage. It was noticed that the soil plots which were compressed with the lowest tire contact area gave the crop yield by 10% less; in the plots where the soil was compressed with the greatest tire contact area the crop yield increased by 9.5% compared to the control plot without compression of the soil.