A father-and-son farming team say controlled traffic farming (CTF) as a powerful tool to reduce soil damage and fuel wastage – but it requires a long-term business commitment.
Considering the underlying importance of a farm's soil, reducing the damage from heavy machinery is a tempting goal.
Decades of random traffic from increasingly-powerful tractors, combines and sprayers have taken their toll, compacting the soil, reducing its porosity and making it more difficult to grow profitable crops.
Now the satellite technology exists to accurately co-ordinate all these vehicles into permanent lanes – but the move requires a long-term mind-set and could entail a considerable capital expense.
One progressive farm which has adopted this controlled traffic farming (CTF) approach is NE Salmon at Hyde Hall in Great Fransham, near Dereham.
The family business, run by Robert Salmon and his son Ed, has invested in a machinery with complementary operating widths, all accurately synchronised to their field lanes through the use of GPS technology.
In this first year of harvest and cultivation management, the aim is to restrict the running of machinery to just 13pc of the farm's 4,800 acres – significantly reducing damage to the soil, and improving yield and fuel efficiency.
'I have believed for a very long time that much of the effort put into cultivation is putting right the damage you have done yourself as a farmer, especially by being on the land when it's too wet or freshly moved,' said Robert. 'By being more sensible in the way you travel across the field you are cultivating only for the benefit of the seed or crop which costs less money, fewer man hours and less fuel to achieve the same goal.'
'Here, 120pc of the field has been trafficked, meaning at least 20pc has been gone over twice. With this new 12m system we are only running on 13pc of the land.
'I see myself as a custodian of this farm, and this soil, for my lifetime. All I can hope to do is pass it back to Edmund in a better state than I found it.
'If the genetic potential of wheat is 20 tonnes per hectare, then we need to do our bit by improving our management and how we grow it.
'If a plant breeder, year on year, is getting half a percent of improvement in yield, but the limiting factor for farmers is the condition of our soil, then the work of the plant breeder is wasted. So if we can improve the way we maintain the soil we can accelerate the work which the scientists, the plant scientists, and God himself are bringing to the party.'
The farm has invested in a 12m combine, a 12m primary cultivator, a 12m secondary cultivator, and two 36m sprayers. The 8m drill is the next item to be changed, so that it fits in with the 12m/36m multiples. All the machinery is equipped with RTK (Real Time Kinematics) guidance technology which is accurate to 2.5cm, and allows the same lanes to be used year after year.
The catalyst for this innovation was the expansion of the firm's contracting operations from 2,800 acres to 4,800 acres last October, and the return of Robert's son Ed to the family business.
'We used to run a 32m sprayer and we were looking at a 10m system because that is what our combine was,' said Ed. 'To do that we had to drop to a 30m sprayer, which would have lost us 9pc of output from where we were, and the spray capacity being so important in a farm system we wanted to maximise that, so we chose 36m.
'Being 36m means we can go to a 12m combine and with the expansion of the business we felt that was a better way to go. The wider we go, the less wheelings are on the field.
'Because we know exactly where the compaction is, we know how to remove it. We will only be subsoiling 13pc of the field rather than the whole field.
'People might say they have always done things a certain way but, at the end of the day, not running on your soil is a complete no-brainer. Every time you run on your soil you lose yield and structure, while adding compaction.'
Agri-Tech open day
N E Salmon Ltd is hosting Agri-Tech East's May Pollinator event, giving farmers the chance to understand the costs and benefits of controlled traffic farming.
Ed and Robert Salmon will lead the farm tour and share insights behind their decision to invest in the new system.
Visitors will also hear from PJ Walker of RTK (Real Time Kinematics) Farming, who will explain how his innovative solution to GPS accuracy is helping to enable more cost-effective production – as well as forming a key part of a CTF set-up.
Robert Salmon said: 'The real thrust of agri-tech is to improve the linkages between science and agriculture. So my wish to be part of Agri-Tech East is to get the scientists working in the areas that we as practical farmers want them to. If we can keep them grounded, tell them our problems and give them the right information, it is a two-way flow of information that will result in better research.'
The Pollinator takes place at Hyde Hall in Great Fransham near Dereham, from 4pm-8pm on May 26.
For more information, click here.
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