Irrigated Cotton Yield with Belted Track and Wheel Tractor Traffic

972735

09/08/1997

Event
1997 SAE International Off-Highway and Powerplant Congress and Exposition
Authors Abstract
Content
For a number of years during cotton harvest in California's San Joaquin Valley, a decrease in cotton plant height was noted in the rows adjacent to the traffic path of the tractor. Studies which measured soil compaction and cotton yields for several tractor configurations were conducted over two growing seasons. The first year's study consisted of sandy and clay test plots with four tractor configurations. The highest yield was with a conventional wheel tractor with dual rear tires and front wheel drive. The plot yielded 27% more cotton in the sandy field and 14% more in the clay field over the least producing tractor plot, which was the belted track tractor. In the second year's study, the highest yield was also with a conventional wheel tractor with dual rear tires and front wheel drive. The plot produced 5% more cotton over the least producing tractor plot, also a belted track tractor. Cotton yields correlated with the soil compaction (cone penetrometer) measurements.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/972735
Pages
9
Citation
Grainger, C., Kosmicki, P., and Zoz, F., "Irrigated Cotton Yield with Belted Track and Wheel Tractor Traffic," SAE Technical Paper 972735, 1997, https://doi.org/10.4271/972735.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Sep 8, 1997
Product Code
972735
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English