ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses largely on machinery management. Compaction is usually a product of machinery or animal management, the corollary of which is that compaction can be avoided, or confined to defined areas, by management. Controlled traffic farming achieves this by restricting all heavy field traffic to permanent traffic lanes whose primary function is trafficability— a function which is clearly improved by compaction. The severity of compaction produced by any given soil stress is a complex function of soil bulk density, texture, and is also influenced by organic matter content and root density. If soil compaction is to be reduced, the obvious solution is to use smaller, lighter equipment, but equipment weight is closely related to capacity and productivity. Removing the operator might well allow the substitution of a number of smaller units for large, high-capacity machines, but, within the scope of current technology there are limits to the potential weight reductions for operations where input or output quantities are significant.
