BRANDON, Man. – Planning paths in fields will become more of a priority as precision farming becomes more popular.
A North Dakota farmer who swears by tram lines says farmers who want to spray their fields several times a season will want to have a visual reference in fields to make the job easier.
“It’s really being driven by the pull of higher yields, the attempt to get rid of the diseases,” said Greg Daws at a recent zero till workshop here.
Tram lines are unseeded pathways in fields. The paths match the width of the wheels of spray applicators.
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Farmers following the tracks do not miss spots or overlap. Daws said producers can reduce chemical use by seven to 15 percent.
The tracks are becoming more common, especially among farmers who have had to deal with excess moisture and related disease and pest problems, said Daws.
Tram lines make night spraying easier. He said some studies have shown that chemicals have more effect on weeds at night due to calmer winds, more humidity and less evaporation.
He said farmers can feel more relaxed if they know exactly where they are spraying.
“It’s essentially a no-brainer to do it.”
To make tram lines, farmers stop the seed from reaching the furrow openers. On an air seeder, farmers divert seed from one row and move it to the next, so one opener gets twice as much seed while creating the path. This puts double the plant population on both sides of the path and that serves as more competition for weeds, keeping the path clearer.
Daws first found out about tram lines on a trip to Europe, where they are used extensively. He bought a counter there for creating lines, but it didn’t work on his North American-made equipment.
So Daws invented his own, and now has a small sideline business selling counters. He estimated he has sold about 200 to Canadian farmers.
His counter automatically shuts off seeds rows for tram lines. For example, if a farmer was using a 30-foot seeder and a 90-foot sprayer, the counter would shut off two seed rows every third time the seeder goes down the field.
But farmers can also create the lines on their own, Daws said.
For instance, farmers with seeders half the size of their sprayers would shut off two seed rows every other pass of the field. A farmer seeding in a north-south pattern would create a tram line on each northbound trip.
Other sprayer-seeder combinations are more difficult to count, Daws noted.
Farmers using tram lines should take other precautions:
- Make sure the wheels on a large, pull-type sprayer aren’t too wide for the tracks.
- Use tram lines only with sprayers at least 40 feet wide, so the total area of the tram lines is less than five percent of the field.
- Swath barley and other small crops at an angle to tram lines rather than directly in the tracks, so the swath is easily lifted by the combine.
