Welcome to the ISTRO website
On this site you will find information about the International Soil Tillage Research Organisation (ISTRO), which focusses on the impact and consequences of various soil tillage (including no-till) practices and from field traffic. More information about the organisation itself can be found on the organisation page.
Activities organised by ISTRO and other organisations concerning soil tillage can be found on the activities page.
Further information about recent publications are found on the publications page.
Thesis of James Barr added to ISTRO website
- Published: 06 September 2019 06 September 2019
September 6th, 2019 - The PhD thesis of James Barr has been added to the Dissertation repository of the ISTRO website, and can be downloaded in the disserations section. James has defended his thesis in June 2018. He has presented his thesis content on the ISTRO conference in Paris in 2018. The thesis has the title 'Optimising bentleg opener geometry for higher speed no-till seeding'.
The introduction of the thesis reads: Narrow openers commonly used in Australian no-tillage seeding operations cause excessive soil disturbance which typically limit speed to 8-9 km h-1. In this thesis, the low disturbance bentleg opener is investigated for its use in high speed no-tillage seeding. The discrete element method (DEM) of modelling is used to optimise performance and develop bentleg openers for integrated use in bentleg seeding systems.
ISTRO Info July-August 2019
- Published: 26 August 2019 26 August 2019
August 28th 2019 - The latest version of ISTRO info, the July - August 2019 issue, is available for download.
In this issue:
- Harvest time in Northern Europe - an editorial by Lars J. Munkholm,
- News on the 2021 and 2024 ISTRO conferences,
- News on Soil & Tillage research,
- PhD defence of Maricke van Leeuwen,
- ISTRO website update,
- Cover crop meeting in the US,
- New ISTRO president elect, Mark Reiter.
In the picture above Dr. Mark Reiter, associate Professor and Extension Specialist of Soils and Nutrient Management, located at the Virginia Tech Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center on the Delmarva Peninsula in Painter, VA. Mark is the new ISTRO president elect. (photo: ).
New PhD thesis by Peter Bilson Obour
- Published: 28 June 2019 28 June 2019
Aarhus, June 28th 2019 - Peter Bilson Obour recently finished his PhD defence with the Aarhus University in Denmark. His PhD thesis is called 'Predicting Soil Workability and Fragmentation In Tillage'.
Peters supervisors were Lars J. Munkholm (main supervisor), Mathieu Lamandé, Gareth Edwards and Claus G. Sørenson (co-supervisors).
The thesis can be downloaded from the Dissertations page.