Erosion & infiltration
The day the runoff stopped
Water ran off heavy North Yorkshire clay instead of soaking in, cutting a channel down the hill. After Mastersoil 150, compaction in the treated zone halved.
The problem
Paul farms heavy clay ground in North Yorkshire. One five-hectare field had a problem he could see from the gate: water ran off the slope instead of soaking in, and it had cut a visible channel down the hill.
Field readings put the soil’s compaction at 300 on a scale where anything above 250 is rated poor — the ground had effectively sealed.
What we did
Paul treated part of the field with Mastersoil 150 at 10 kg/ha and left an adjacent zone untreated as a control.
Compaction and young-plant height were read by hand in both zones on the same visits, so treated and control ground faced identical conditions.
Application rate: 10 kg/ha
What we measured
Soil compaction — 23 April 2023
n = 5 per zoneTreated
105
Control
210
A 50% reduction — enough to move the treated soil from the “poor” band into the “very good” band.
Young-plant height — same visit
Treated
21.8 cm
Control
17.3 cm
Soil compaction — July follow-up survey
n = 57Treated
—
Control
—
A larger survey of the same field still showed a clear treated-zone advantage, at a more modest 37% reduction.
“No more run-off down the hill.”
Wondering whether your ground would respond?
Tell us about the field. We’ll say whether it’s the kind of soil the trials point to.