
Tractor Tire
Needs May Vary in No-Till and Conventional Farming SystemsBy David
Elstein May 30, 2003Farmers who do not till their land may
need different types of tractor tires in the future to minimize soil
compaction, according to a study by the Agricultural Research Service. Compaction is caused by the weight of the tractor tires pressing down on the
soil. When operating tractors, farmers try to minimize compaction because it
can hinder infiltration of water to crop roots and increase soil erosion and
water runoff. Thomas R. Way, an agricultural engineer with ARS's
National Soil
Dynamics Laboratory in Auburn, Ala., led the study in cooperation with
Tadashi Kishimoto at the Obihiro University of Agriculture
and Veterinary Medicine in Japan. In the study, the researchers used a
tractor tire equipped with six sensors on its tread to study tire pressure on
tilled and no-till soils. Surprisingly, they found that the pressure was least
uniform on untilled clay soils, and was actually more uniform on tilled soils.
This research is expected to help manufacturers adjust the tire contact
pressure and the size of tire lugs, which are the raised bars on the tread. The
lugs have considerable contact with the soil and they also can affect
compaction. Changing tire pressure and size could help minimize compaction on
no-till fields, an important consideration because of the increasing popularity
of no-till farming. During the study, the researchers were also surprised by the similarity of
another factor called "tractive efficiency" on tilled and no-till
soils. This is a measure of the efficiency with which the tire converts the
power that's applied to the wheel to useful work. A tractor's fuel efficiency increases with its tractive efficiency. Before
the study began, the researchers thought that tractor fuel efficiency would be
greater on no-till soils. But the study showed that tractive efficiency was the
same on tilled and no-till soils, meaning there was actually little difference
in fuel efficiency. ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. U.S. Department of Agriculture |