LOW yields for five years from a heavily compacted area prompted Port Broughton farmer Peter Edwards to try deep ripping.
Mr Edwards noticed compaction from header tyres on a sandhill after heavy rain a few years ago.
"I decided to try ripping it up and rejuvenating the soil," he said.
"A lot of lentils were being sown due to good prices, but they don't have a strong root system. Compaction exaggerates this, especially with a dry finish, as the roots have a difficult time accessing moisture in the profile."
Mr Edwards said that after deep ripping the area last year, the lentil roots followed the deep-ripped channels, giving them access to more moisture and nutrients and a larger root system.
"They were twice the size of the lentils in the unripped soil," he said.
"We had minimal rain from August onward and you could really see the difference between where we had ripped and where we hadn't, which was drying out.
"If you had a good spring rain, you might not notice as much."
The results prompted Mr Edwards to run a trial this year in conjunction with the Northern Sustainable Soils group, using two different rippers and a spader.
He has sown a trial paddock with barley into a wheat stubble.
"We had a Vaaderstad tyned ripper supplied by Flinders Machinery, and an AgriPlow ripper," he said.
"These did two rips, one at 150 millimetres and another at 250mm, and one pass was done in combining the ripping with the spader.
"It is time consuming and that's why a ripper such as the AgriPlow, which is wider with a wider tine spacing, is more attractive. It is 6 metres wide compared with the Vaaderstad at 3.7m.
"They have a similar horsepower and fuel usage, but the rip is twice as wide so there is a greater attraction for the broadacre farmer."
Mr Edwards said he had not previously tried spading but was willing to give it a go for the trial.
"That is what the trial is about though, to try and compare new techniques," he said.
"One person also trialled delving around here, but you need clay to blend with sand and the right type of clay," he said.
"Some of the subsoil is a bit hostile, and the clay can be located too deep in the profile for spading or delving, so it isn't something I was interested in. My focus is more on breaking-up the hardpans with a deep rip.
"Rippers will get in underneath and rip the soil, whereas the spader is more an incorporation, mixing all soil layers together.
"Talking to farmers around here, a lot aren't interested in incorporating soils, because in sandhills you don't want to disturb them too much due to the erosion risk, and you want a ripper that has minimal impact."
