To assess water repellent soil amelioration options and to determine whether a one-way plough can be used to ameliorate non-wetting sand for much lower cost than mouldboard ploughing or rotary spading.

• Pale deep sand has inherently poor yield potential and given the high cost of the water repellence amelioration treatments it can be difficult to determine whether the investment is worthwhile.
• At this site the productivity gains have been sufficient to offset the costs and be profitable for each of the options tested.
• Claying despite being expensive does have the advantage of being long-lasting and reduces wind erosion risk. Shallower cultivation with offset discs or one-way ploughing can give profitable improvements but the example of the one-way plough demonstrated that the benefits can be reduced or even negated by wind erosion damage.
• It should be noted that other research indicates that improving the effectiveness of the seeding operation can give yield gains of similar magnitude or even greater than those measured for the offset discs without the erosion risk. Exploring this possibility is probably a first step for growers looking to manage repellence on these soils.