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.
ISTRO info August 2020
- Published: 26 August 2020 26 August 2020
April 30th 2020 - The latest version of ISTRO info, the August 2020 issue, is available for download.
In this issue:
- ISTRO 2021 conference
- Nominations for President-elect
- Nominations for Assistant Secretary General
- Nominations for Board positions
- New special issue on terrain-machine Interactions
- Upcoming Meetings and Events
- New Books
In this issue special, and repeated, attention for the nomintions for President Elect, Assistant Secretary General and Board positions; those interested in holding the 24th conference in 2027 should nominate for ISTRO President-elect (and thus serve on the ISTRO board). In the first instance, they should contact Secretary-General Blair McKenzie (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Assistant Secretary-General Lars J. Munkholm (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) on or before September 1st, 2020, to discuss their interest.
The Assistant Secretary General position will be vacant after the 2021 conference in Dublin where Lars J. Munkholm will take over from Blair McKenzie as Secretary General.
Nominations for minimum two and maximum four Board positions of 6 years and are now being accepted from all ISTRO members in good standing. We aim at a good geographical spread and a gender balance. The current ISTRO Board has a good geographical spread but a very poor gender balance (all members are male). Therefore, we strongly encourage our female members to consider this opportunity.
More details in the newsletter.
ISTRO info April 2020
- Published: 02 May 2020 02 May 2020
April 30th 2020 - The latest version of ISTRO info, the April 2020 issue, is available for download.
In this issue:
- ISTRO 2021 conference
- Nominations for President-elect
- Nominations for Assistant Secretary General
- Nominations for Board positions
- New S&T Research Editor in Chief – Joshua Heitman
- Central European ISTRO Conference - New date
- CROSTRO Conference 2020 - New date
- ISTRO working group C Conservation Soil Tillage 1st meeting – New date
- Upcoming Meetings and Events
- New Books
In the picture on the left, the University College Dublin, Belfield Campus, located in south Dublin, Ireland, where the 22nd International ISTRO conference will be held on 20-24th September 2021.
The conference theme will be: 'Soil and tillage and the transition to digital agriculture'. The article in this issue of ISTRO info says this about this theme: 'Agriculture may seem largely the same as it always has been with machines and energy used to till, sow, maintain and harvest crops for food. However, over the last few years there has been a rapid and significant introduction of digital data, computers, networks, connections, sensors and models that are beginning to change how agriculture works, the skills needed by the farming industry and research required now and in the future. The 22nd ISTRO international conference will examine where we are, and the pathway forward for soil and tillage in the age of digital agriculture. (photo: courtesy ECD).
ISTRO info Januari 2020
- Published: 11 November 2019 11 November 2019
February 7th 2020 - The latest version of ISTRO info, the January 2020 issue, is available for download.
In this issue:
- New Editor of Soil and Tillage Research
- CROSTRO Conference 2020
- ISTRO working group C Conservation Soil Tillage 1st meeting
- World Soil Day, 5th December 2019
- Upcoming Meetings and Events
- News books
In the picture on the left Prof. Laura Alakukku who has recently joined the team of Editors-in-Chief of Soil and Tillage Research. Laura is working at the Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. She is a long-term member of ISTRO and served on the ISTRO board 2003-2009.
Laura’s research interests cover: environmental technology in agriculture; soil management; soil compaction and structure; conservation tillage methods connected to break-crop systems; biological tillage; precision farming; machine-soilcrop –interactions. (Photo: Veikko Somerpuro, University of Helsinki).