Soil compaction is a problem that affects most crops and influences both plant growth and productivity, as well as soil and water conservation. A 3-year experiment was conducted in Centro Agropecuaho da Raima, Federal University of Pelotas (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) to evaluate the compaction of a Typical Endoaqualf involving continuous rice systems (conventional, minimum tillage and no tillage) and crop rotation systems with different cover crops under no-tillage, using a penetrometer. The results show that the largest resistance of the soil to the penetrometer in the 0-20 cm layer occurred in the conventional and minimum tillage continuous rice systems. Results for the continuous rice and crop rotation under no-tillage were similar to the non-cultivated soil. All treatments presented increased resistance to penetration below 40 cm depth.
