Machinery traffic in modern agriculture is the main cause of soil compaction, and it often affects soybean yields. The objective of this study was to evaluate the development of soybean cultivars in relation to soil compaction levels. An experiment was carried out on a sandy-loam Haplustox located in Jaboticabal County, SP, Brazil. The following compaction levels were tested: T0 = 0 (no tractor passing), T1* = 1, T1 = 1, T2 = 2, T4 = 4 and T6 = tractor passed six times. A tractor of 11 t was passed over the same area adjacent to each other until all the plot soil surface was compacted. The compaction in T1*was performed when the soil was driest to obtain a lower compaction level. The experimental design was completely randomized in split plots (six compaction levels and four soybean cultivars) with four replications. Undisturbed soil samples were collected in the 0.03-0.06, 0.08-0.11, 0.15-0.18 and 0.22-0.25 m deep layers to evaluate the physical attributes. Soybean (Glycine max) cultivars IAC Foscarin 31, MG/BR 46 (Conquista), BRS/MG 68 (Vencedora) and IAC 8-2 were sown in December 2003. IAC Foscarim 31 was the most productive soybean cultivar. The threshold values of soil resistance to penetration above which the soybean yield decreased varied from 2.24 to 2.97 MPa, depending on the cultivars.
soil mechanical resistance; physical attributes; Glycine max; soil density
