Loading soil via pneumatic tyres is a major cause of compaction of agricultural soils, which causes damage to the soil-water-air-plant system. The loads applied to the soil and the resulting pressure influences the degree of soil compaction. This study was conducted to determine an effective method to measure the pressure distribution under a selection of pneumatic agricultural tyres. This was conducted initially on a non-deformable surface; a later study will consider pressures within the subsoil. From this the tyre carcass stiffness was determined and methods to predict carcass stiffness were evaluated. Tyre carcass stiffness is defined as an equivalent pressure resulting from the stiffness of the tyre carcass. In order to estimate the carcass stiffness of tyres a number of approaches were considered including: (i) footprint area, (ii) tyre load – deflection, (iii) pressure mapping and (iv) tyre manufacturer's specification methods. Carcass stiffness values obtained from the footprint area method gave results significantly lower (30–40%) than those obtained using the pressure mapping system. The method based on the tyre load – deflection characteristics was found to give a better estimation of the tyre carcass stiffness of the smooth rather than the treaded tyre. The technique of using the tyre manufacturer's specification data, where the estimation of the tyre carcass stiffness was calculated using the theoretical load that the tyre could support at zero inflation pressure, produced estimates that were within ±20% of the mean carcass stiffness determined using the pressure mapping system.