Controlled traffic challenges aired - The Advocate

March 7, 2013, 1 a.m.

AUSTRALIA'S first international controlled traffic farming conference, held from February 25-27 in Toowoomba, attracted people from 16 countries.

It was the eighth conference organised by the Australian Controlled Traffic Farming Association.

This year was the first time organisers made a deliberate effort to attract speakers and delegates from overseas.

John McPhee, farming systems researcher with the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture's Vegetable Centre, was part of the conference organising committee.

He said the conference was a chance to get up-to-date on CTF developments globally.

"We had presenters from eight countries discussing the developments in their various industries, along with 125 registrations from a total of 16 countries," Mr McPhee said.

"In previous years, we've had some overseas delegates, but this was the first time we made a deliberate effort to attract overseas speakers and delegates."

The conference gave people the chance to hear about a variety of topics on all industries likely to be potential users of controlled traffic systems.

"There was a mix of farmers talking about the trials and tribulations of their own experiences, as well as more research-based talks," he said.

"We also had two half-day field trips, one on grain and the other on vegetables. These were not as good as they could have been on account of all the rain."

In 2006, Mr McPhee and Peter Aird, of Serve-Ag, teamed up to look at using controlled traffic in the Tasmanian vegetable industry based on a two-metre wheel track.

Over the years, there have been a number of related industry- funded projects, a project at the Vegetable Centre research farm at Forthside, as well as projects on commercial farms looking at some of the challenges of adopting the practice.

The development of seasonal controlled traffic in Europe is more easily applied in Tasmania at the current time.

This means farmers make sure everything that is done in the paddock is on the same wheel tracks, except harvest.

Mr McPhee said that with current vegetable-harvesting machinery, it was very difficult to align all harvest wheel traffic.

Using satellite guidance after harvest, farmers are able to come back to the same location of wheel tracks to start the next round of cultivation.

Registrations at this year's international CTF conference represented all states of Australia as well as New Zealand, Japan, Ireland, Philippines, India, UK, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Canada, the US, Brazil, Sweden, Canada and South Africa.

There was also a range of people and representation from grain, sugar cane, cotton, forage and the vegetable industry.

"The first ACTFA conference was held in 1995. In the past, the conferences tended to be dominated by grain because this is the area where controlled traffic farming started off and made its home so to speak," Mr McPhee said.

"It's also technically a lot easier to do in grain than most other industries."

In an ideal situation, controlled traffic farming is a technique in which all the machinery wheel tracks are kept in the same place from crop to crop, year after year.

The aim is to concentrate the soil compaction that occurs from vehicle traffic in the one place.

It then leaves all the soil in between in a loose, friable condition for growing crops with the benefit of better soil condition and increased yield.

Mr McPhee said one of the highlights from the conference was to hear the "buzz around the coffee table" about its benefits from people from different countries and industries.

"Industries are different, there is no doubt, but the basic principles of controlled traffic remain the same," he said.

"It is how you adapt and apply the principles that varies, depending on where you are and what crop you grow.

"There was a lot of discussion between industries on what could be done to modify what they are achieving to make it work in their field."

Mr McPhee said the widespread adoption of CTF had been hampered, largely due to some machinery constraints in getting equipment from a variety of manufacturers on a common wheel track.

He said it didn't matter where in the world people were attempting CTF, one of the issues farmers faced when it came to the adoption was the machinery.

"There is a lack of movement on the part of machinery manufacturers to design and produce machines that are controlled traffic compatible" Mr McPhee said.

"Consequently, you often find that people who are interested find it too hard, particularly in an industry like vegetables, which uses a wide diversity of machinery styles.

"If you look back at the history of the grain industry, that all started with growers making their own changes."

Mr McPhee said those early pioneers had all manner of hassles but were dedicated enough to stick to it and eventually a number of tractor manufacturers produced machines on three-metre wheel tracks.

This development has enabled people in the grain industry to move into controlled traffic reasonably easily, something Mr McPhee hoped to see become common.