Details of Activity:
On August 7th, 2025, the St. Clair Region of the Soil and Crop Improvement Association, in collaboration with Essex, Chatham-Kent, and Lambton local Associations, hosted a Compaction Day at Jackson Seed Services elevator in Rutherford.
With the diversity of soil types, crops, and unique equipment used only in Southwestern Ontario, the St. Clair Region hoped to offer a unique perspective compared to previous compaction events.
This event was the culmination of 8 months of planning in how to bring production relevant, real farm scenario data on the impact, prevention and management of compaction to our Soil and Crop membership.
The demonstration site had been seeded to oats in the spring that were harvested a week before the event. We also seeded a cover crop demonstration area at the end of June. To highlight the influence of soil moisture content on compaction, we watered 6 soil pits through the 3rd and 4th of August, to have both dry and “wet” conditions to put sensor into and run equipment through. (Refer below to Gallery Photo 1)
Several local equipment companies, ag retailers, and farmers supplied over 40 pieces of equipment for the event including tractors, combines, planters, drills, sprayers, buggys, wagons, airflows, spreaders, side-dress applicators, pick-ups, tractor trailers, and manure tankers.
To ensure that compaction readings represented real field or “worst case” scenarios, we filled equipment to capacity on August 5th with cememt blocks, wheat from Jackson’s elevator, or water from a local filling station. TireCraft, a key sponsor, was also was on hand to change out tires where possible for showcasing configuration effects on compaction (ex. wides versus skinnies). With the guidance and instruction from the Ontario Campaction Team, lead by Ian McDonald and Alex Barrie, each axle of every piece of equipment was ran over weigh scales to capture loads weights, axle distances, tire pressures and types. (Refer below to Gallery Photo 2 & 3)
On August 6th, each piece of equimpent was run through the dry and wet sensor pits which captured compaction at each axle at various depths of soil. The planning and compaction committee then chose which 10 pieces of equipment would be best to showase during the live event the following day. (Refer below to Gallery Photo 4)
The day of the live event on August 7th we had 260 people attend. All the volunteers from our local associations and youth ag groups could be cleary seen in their orange Soil and Crop t-shirts. Throughout the day, growers had the opportunity to meet up with friends and neighbours, as well as visit and talk with local companies in our Sponsors area. (Refer below to Gallery Photo 5 & 6)
Attendees were broken up into 6 groups by colour coded wrist band. During the morning, 3 groups went to the Compaction area where Peter Johnson and Greg Stewart discussed results and impacts of the selected equipment as it was run through the dry and wet sensors. Growers could visually see the sensor depths and level of compaction generated thanks to the Soil and Crop Mobile Unit. (Refer below to Gallery Photo 7 & 8)
The other 3 groups were rotated between information sessions including:
- Soil Pit discussion – Dan Saurette – soil horizons, cover crop roots, impact of drainage and compaction
- Cover Crop discussion – Christine Brown, Jake Munroe, and Lawrence Levesque of Speare Seeds – types of covers to support compaction alleviation, establishing, maximizing and terminating
- TireCraft – tire pressures, types, inflation systems, how to get the most life out of your tires
After a great lunch provided by Burns of Dresden, the groups were rotated again to either see the Compaction Demo or the 3 information sessions. (Refer below to Gallery Photo 9 & 10)
A day like this does not come together on it’s own. Special thanks to the members of the planning committee including Margaret May and Colin Elgie, other members from Essex, Chatham-Kent, and Lambton SCIA, all the great sponsors for supplying equipment and financial support, TireCraft, volunteers, speakers, the Ontario Compaction Team, and lastly, a huge thanks to Jackson Seed Services for hosting the event, and all the extra effort that went into making a day like this a success.
Looking forward to the results from the event being shared out to members at Winter AGMs. (Refer below to Gallery Photo 11)
Important to Note:260 individuals attended the event. Shawn Brenneman, St. Clair Regional Provincial Director, is the contact person for this event.