Farm machinery exacting heavy toll on soil - study

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Up to a fifth of global land used to grow crops could be damaged by massive tractor.

The weight of modern combine harvesters, tractors and other farm machinery can lead to flooding and poor harvests, according to researchers in Sweden.

In their paper, they raise a question.

How did giant dinosaurs survive without trampling the soil?

When fully loaded, combine harvesters have ballooned in size from 4,000 to 36,000 kilogrammes. The brontosaurus weighed more than the larger figure.

The impact on the soil has increased because of the bigger tires on the vehicles.

Air is forced out of the soil when it has been crushed by a heavy weight.

The land is prone to flooding because it is difficult for plants to put down roots.

Image source, Getty Images

The growing weight of farm machinery poses a threat to agricultural productivity.

Combine harvesters could be damaging up to a fifth of the global land used to grow crops, according to an analysis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Thomas Keller is a professor of soil management at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Compaction can happen within a few seconds when we drive on the soil, but it can take decades for that soil to recover.

Long-necked plant-eating dinosaurs such as brontosaurus, which were once on the Earth, are more powerful than modern harvesters.

This raises a question: how did the extinct creatures thrive in the altered environment?

Prof Thomas Keller thinks the giant plant-eaters might have used their long necks to reach nearby vegetation.

He explained that they think they didn't just walk around randomly across the landscape.