Soil compaction testing is important in crop production to determine where you have soil compaction problems in your fields. Compaction is a physical barrier to roots and affects the transmission of vital nutrients and elements through the soil. Losses of N to groundwater and to the atmosphere is greater in compacted soil. The FarmQA CTS-1000 is the tool to measure soil compaction efficiently and easily in all of your fields.

CTS-1000

Soil Penetrometer

As agricultural machinery has increased in both size and number, this has caused an increase in soil compaction. Currently, you don't have a good way to measure the amount and location of soil compaction, so you respond one of two ways. First, you can ignore the problem and accept the yield loss (up to 30%), or you can work the entire field with a deep tillage tool. This is costly, $4/acre in fuel cost alone, and may be unnecessary.

Shop Now Starting at $4,995

Soil scientists have determined that a cone penetrometer needs to be pushed through the soil profile at a consistent rate to read the condition of the soil.

Tom McGraw, Agricultural Consultant - Founder, Midwest Independent Soil Samplers

Thanks to the use of the CTS-1000, we receive reliable data bout the presence and the depth of compacted soil layers. Those layers stand in the way of root system development and change the moisture distribution and slows down moisture absorption.

Oleksandr Dotsenko, Lead agri-chemist at Kernel, Ukraine

[The] compaction measuring device for Astarta showed compaction practically on all our fields. Depth of when a serious level of compaction was found differs from 30cm to 50cm.

Serhii Chernyshov, Astarta, Ukraine

Ideal soil

The ideal soil is composed of soil particles (sand, silt and clay), water, air and organic material. The air can be squeezed from the soil by the weight of machinery, thus causing compaction by changing the bulk density of the soil.

Plant roots are sensitive to changes in bulk density, thus causing roots to spread laterally. This lateral spread uses less soil volume to feed the plant causing limited yield.

Compaction profile

The FarmQA soil penetrometer is engineered to measure both heavily compacted soils as well as the change in density layers.

The compaction testing system from FarmQA provides an integrated solution, helping you increase yield and reduce costs.

Robust

Engineered to withstand field operations, the CTS-1000 is made by Amity Technology, leaders in agricultural technologies.

Soil scientists require a cone penetrometer to be pushed through the soil at a consistent rate. With a hand sampler, it is hard to maintain consistency over dozens of samples. Because the CTS-1000 is electrically driven, it produces a constant stroke every cycle no matter what the soil conditions. This insures accurate compaction readings every time.