After a wet harvest season that wreaked havoc on fields in large portions of Iowa, farmers may face significant soil compaction issues this spring, according to agronomists.

“It was a tough fall, so while we don’t like to run on wet soils, there weren’t many options,” said Clarke McGrath, Iowa State University (ISU)’s Iowa Soybean Research Center on-farm research and extension coordinator.

McGrath said there are different types of compaction: soil surface crusting; tillage-induced plow-pan and the...