LACOMBE, Alta. – Craig Shaw believes in controlled traffic farming, but he’s not a purist.
He will still take a short cut across a field with a sprayer or send a photographer across the field in a truck to get a picture of his new seeding equipment.
“It’s only phase one,” said Shaw. He has committed to the new farming method on his central Alberta farm but knows it involves more than sticking to preset tram lines in fields.
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It will take a few years to completely switch equipment and past practices.
A trip to Australia last November to tour farms that have adopted controlled traffic farming convinced Shaw that producers don’t have to obsess about driving only on tram-lines.
“There are other benefits of grid farming,” he said.
“It gives better seed placement, so that’s better for farming. It’s easier to do in-field testing and I hope to improve fuel economy.”
Shaw has replaced his four-wheel drive tractor with a smaller, more nimble German designed Fendt to pull the seeder.
He also bought a new, smaller Salford drill for seeding. The front tires on the drill don’t line up with the tram tracks exactly, but he hopes the lighter weight at the front of the drill will reduce compaction problems.
He kept his old equipment to seed 1,000 acres of rented land two hours north of his main Lacombe farm and used his four-wheel drive tractor to pull the smaller Fendt out of mud holes in his field this spring.
Shaw is also helping research the new practice.
He seeded 160 acres as part of Controlled Traffic Farming Alberta, a farmer-led initiative aimed at evaluating traffic farming systems in Alberta. Half of the quarter section was seeded following controlled traffic farming guidelines and the other 80 acres were seeded using conventional farming methods.
“We’re trying to identify the benefits of controlled traffic,” said Shaw, who will also try to incorporate small conventional test strips in another field on his farm.
The project may be funded for only three years, but the system already has believers who are convinced of the benefits, especially in dry years.
“In Australia in dry years, the guys in CT get crops and the other guys don’t. That’s pretty important,” said Shaw.
He predicted that farmers will adopt parts of controlled traffic farming just as they did direct seeding.
“If the results look good enough, it won’t take 25 years,” he said.
“The compaction thing will take time to see the total benefit. The compaction thing is getting deeper roots and better water filtration. That will take time.”
The large-scale field research projects are designed to test the concept of precision agriculture in a variety of soil types and moisture conditions in Alberta.
Farmers in the project have also seeded land at Jarvie, Trochu and Morrin, where Steve Larocque began controlled traffic farming last year.
Field days will be held at each of the sites.
