This Is the Year to Tackle Compaction

The late and wet harvest that producers saw in 2018, combined with this year’s extremely wet planting season, has compacted the soil profile more than in past years. If there is ever a time to fracture the compaction in your fields, this is it. When not addressed, compaction can linger in your fields for years and hurt the agronomic quality of your soil. Beat compaction this fall and boost your yield potential with these tips.

How Compaction Affects Yield

Compaction acts like a brick below the surface of your fields. It restricts water and root infiltration, preventing optimal plant growth and causing variability in the field. More importantly, it limits yield potential. Uneven crop emergence and stand variability can reduce crop yields by up to 50%.¹

Featured at 2019 Farm Progress Show: Take 20 minutes to hear from Dr. Fred Below of the University of Illinois and Dr. Alison Vogel, Case IH agronomist. These experts discuss their experience in the field and research on how compaction affects your crops.

Five Things to Know About Compaction

1. Finding Compaction

Check for compaction layers not only before but also during fall tillage to optimize compaction layer breakup. Finding the bottom of the compaction layer is the most important measurement. The bottom of the compaction layer will most likely be between 8 and 11 inches below the surface. Finding your compaction layer is easy to do — all you need is a spade, 5-gallon bucket, pocket knife and measuring stick.
Find Compaction
2. Improving Water Availability

Compacted soil acts like a brick below the surface of your fields, restricting water infiltration in your fields. Addressing and improving water infiltration and soil composition is one of the most important things growers can do to impact yield. Compaction removes pore space — areas for oxygen and water — which causes plant stress and limits the soil’s ability to break down nutrients for optimal plant growth.
CREATE HEALTHY SOIL
3. Effects on Yield

Compaction causes uneven crop emergence and stand variability, which hurts crop yield. In fact, stand variability can cause a 50% loss of yield.¹ Taking action against compaction now can boost yield potential for the future.
BOOST YIELDS

4. Ways to Address Compaction

Compaction can be broken up — and prevented — through several methods, including tillage, cover crops and eventually increasing organic matter in the soil. While cover crops can be a good long-term solution to preventing compaction, tillage can quickly and effectively alleviate severe compaction in a year like 2019. Learn more about the benefits of each solution and see what’s right for your operation.

FIND YOUR SOLUTION
5. Where to Fracture Deep Compaction

Be sure to fracture compaction 1 inch below the compaction layer. Proven Case IH Tiger Points help effectively “lift, twist and roll” the soil at your target depth. By setting 1 inch below the bottom layer, you avoid hitting the middle of the compaction layer, which would limit fracturing and cause wear to the Tiger Points. Built on Agronomic Design^™ principles, the 23-degree downward-, rearward- and outward-swept wings do more than just cut a slot in the compaction layer.
FRACTURE COMPACTION

Tackle Compaction With Case IH Soil Management Tools

Deep Compaction

Tackle deep compaction with the most aggressive disk ripper on the market — the Ecolo-Tiger^® 875 disk ripper. With powerful disk-cutting, high under-frame clearance and the option to equip with AFS Soil Command^™ agronomic control, this tillage tool perfectly levels the field.
ECOLO-TIGER 875
Options for Min-till & No-till

The Ecolo-Til® 2500 tillage tool is equipped with no-till Tiger Points for less surface disturbance, yet it is able to fracture the compaction layer. This tillage tool is effective for conventional, min-till and no-till or conservation tillage practices, and it is designed to limit compaction and control moisture.
ECOLO-TIL 2500
Ruts and Surface Compaction

Fall 2018 and spring 2019 were wet in many areas during fieldwork, harvesting and planting, and many ruts may have been created along with surface compaction, which can hurt plant emergence and development. The True-Tandem^™ 335VT and 335 Barracuda vertical tillage tools with AFS Soil Command are agronomically engineered and built with rugged components. These tools are the tools of choice to remove and smooth ruts up to 4 inches deep to alleviate surface compaction and effectively level the soil surface while cutting, sizing and mixing residue.
TRUE-TANDEM 335VT AND 335 BARRACUDA

Shatter Compaction With Tiger Points

Patented Case IH Tiger Points, featured on all Case IH disk rippers such as the Ecolo-Tiger® 875 and available to add to any tillage tool, have wings that extend downward, rearward and outward.

This revolutionary design is second to none in the industry and creates a “lift, twist and roll” action that:

Relocates soil particles
Creates healthier soil with excellent pore space and distribution
Allows for maximum soil tilth
Moves nutrients to the root growing area for maximized uptake

SHOP TIGER POINTS

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¹According to studies from the Crop Physiology Laboratory at the University of Illinois.

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This Is the Year to Tackle Compaction

How Compaction Affects Yield

Five Things to Know About Compaction

1. Finding Compaction

2. Improving Water Availability

3. Effects on Yield

4. Ways to Address Compaction

5. Where to Fracture Deep Compaction

Tackle Compaction With Case IH Soil Management Tools

Deep Compaction

Options for Min-till & No-till

Ruts and Surface Compaction

Shatter Compaction With Tiger Points

Build & Price

Compare Specs

Contact Dealer