By SUSAN BLOWER
Indiana Correspondent

GREENFIELD, Ind. — Not much can be done about wet soil, but farmers can use a few tricks of the tire trade to reduce their chances of soil compaction.

•Use larger radial tires and lower tire pressure. If staying off wet fields is impossible, the lower tire pressure will put more of the tire on the ground, reducing compaction and increasing traction, said Jay Callahan, farm tires salesman at Riley Park Tire in Greenfield, Ind.

•Use a tire handbook and a good tire gauge to help determine the correct air pressure. Some ATV tire gauges may work as long as they show low pressures, said Jody DeJong-Hughes, University of Minnesota extension educator.

•Use the lightest tractor available.

•Keep tillage shallow. A cultivator shank should only dig down about 8-10 inches, DeJong-Hughes said. Otherwise, the equipment will pull up clods.

•Use vertical tillage equipment to avoid hard layers in the soil created by more traditional flat tillage, she said. Vertical till should only be used on surface soil that is dry enough to shatter, according to NoTillFarmer.com – or it may increase surface compaction. Vertical till is a more recent trend which is still being evaluated.

•Slow down the planter and adjust the down pressure for wet soils. Get out of the planter and evaluate the effect on the soil behind it.

•While tracks have better flotation than tires, DeJong-Hughes said they can give a false sense of security. Allow the field to dry out properly.

“All of these things slow (farmers) down, which is harder to do when you have a shorter planting window,” she said. These precautions may be worth the time, however, since compaction is a difficult problem to overcome.