FarmQA, Farm with control.

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.


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 lose (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.

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.


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

Soil scientists require a cone penetrometer needs to be pushed through the soil at a consistent rate. The FarmQA CTS-1000 soil penetrometer does by varying the rate of the voltage of the electric motor that drives the penetration and extraction in response to resistance of the soil probe.