Direct drilling or no tillage systems are among the most successful agricultural alternatives regarding soil and water conservation, energy economy and operational capacity of machinery. Some areas where cattle raising and grain production share the same grounds, or where soils are trafficked in moist conditions they may show compaction of the upper layers. Compacted soil areas may not need to be chiseled or plowed, if seed germination and good growing standards are reached by the initial soil conditioning solely by planter's coulters. The specific aims of the present work are to determine the knowledge of coulter draft requirements and the amount of displaced soil and tractor slippage on a Paleudult soil at different soil moisture condition, in direct planting on natural pastures chemically killed. Draft requirements increased with an increase in working depth. The increase of the ground speed had no effect on draft when soil was dry or moist; it increased however, on friable soil. Soil displacement was always higher with dry soil and at 12 cm working depth. When soil was friable or dry, the front wheels traction was needed to keep tractor slippage within acceptable levels.
soil mobilization; tire slippage; planter
