International Soil and Tillage Research Organisation (ISTRO).

In late-May 2005, this group held a “Visual soil structure assessment” field meeting near Peronne in the Somme Valley, north-east France. The workshop was sponsored by the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA), Estrées-Mons, and ISTRO.

The aims of the meeting were as follows:

• Ten soil structure assessment methods from UK, France, Australia, Denmark, New Zealand and Switzerland were compared in the field under maize, sugar beet and pea crops in a long term tillage experiment on loess-derived soil. Three of the procedures were based on assessment of the whole soil profile to a depth of one metre. Seven were based on spade inspections of the topsoil.

• Possible improvements for each of the methods were discussed.

• Consideration was given to amalgamation of some of the techniques.

David McKenzie demonstrated the SOILpak “compaction severity” assessment procedures to the group. This method was developed by the Australian cotton industry approximately 15 years ago, and is part of the ‘Land and Water Management’ module in the Best Management Practices Manual. The workshop provided an opportunity to see how well the SOILpak assessment procedures compare with the best available practices in other countries, and allowed possible improvements to be explored.