Tag Archives: traffic intensity

1163–1176 G.F. Botta, D.L. Antille, F. Bienvenido, D. Rivero, E.A. Avila-Pedraza, E.E. Contessotto, D.G. Ghelfi, A.I. Nistal, F.M. Pelizzari, L. Rocha-Meneses and A. Ezquerra Canalejo
Effect of cattle trampling and farm machinery traffic on soil compaction of an Entic Haplustoll in a semiarid region of Argentina
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Effect of cattle trampling and farm machinery traffic on soil compaction of an Entic Haplustoll in a semiarid region of Argentina

G.F. Botta¹*, D.L. Antille²*, F. Bienvenido³, D. Rivero⁴, E.A. Avila-Pedraza⁵, E.E. Contessotto¹, D.G. Ghelfi¹, A.I. Nistal¹, F.M. Pelizzari⁴, L. Rocha-Meneses⁶ and A. Ezquerra Canalejo⁷

¹Universidad Nacional de Lujan, Departamento de Tecnología, Ruta 5 y Avenida Constitución, AR6700 Luján, Argentina
²CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Black Mountain Science and Innovation Precinct, Clunies Ross Street, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
³Universidad de Almería, CIMEDES Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, ES04120 Almería, Spain
⁴Universidad Nacional de La Pampa, Facultad de Agronomía, Ruta 35 (km 334), AR6300 Santa Rosa, Argentina
⁵Universidad del Tolima, Facultad de Ingeniería Agronómica, Calle 42, Ibagué 730006299, Tolima, Colombia
⁶Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Technology, Chair of Biosystems Engineering, Kreutzwaldi 56, EE51006 Tartu, Estonia
⁷Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Montes, Forestal y del Medio Natural, Ciudad Universitaria, ES28040 Madrid, Spain
*Correspondence: gfbotta@agro.uba.ar; Dio.Antille@csiro.au

Abstract:

Soil compaction has detrimental effects on the physical, mechanical and hydraulic properties of soils, and affects important soil processes and function, and crop productivity. This work was conducted to investigate soil compaction impacts in integrated arable cropping-livestock systems managed under conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT). The work examined the combined effects of cattle trampling and farm machinery traffic on: soil strength, soil deformation, and water infiltration into soil. The following treatments were applied to soil (Entic Haplustoll, 60% sand) managed under CT and NT: three traffic intensities (1, 5, 7 passes) performed with light (2WD, 53 kN) and heavy (4WD, 100.4 kN) tractors, and two stocking densities (400 and 700 kg ha-1), respectively. Controls were also used to represent the condition of the soil without any effect of livestock or field traffic. In both tillage systems, soil penetration resistance (strength) increased and water infiltration into soil decreased as traffic intensities or stocking rates applied increased. There was a significant traffic intensity × stocking rate interaction, which influenced the depth and extent of soil compaction at depth. Despite these results, stubble grazing during fallow should not be discouraged as this practice offers mixed farming systems several agronomic and financial benefits. If stubble was to be grazed, the system would need to be carefully managed: (1) avoid ‘random’ traffic using permanent or semi-permanent traffic paths to minimise the field wheeled area, (2) vacate livestock from the field, or confine it to a sacrificial area, when the soil water content exceeds a critical level above which
soil damage is likely, and (3) maintain more than 60%–70% ground cover. Tillage repair treatments can be targeted to those sacrificial or ‘hot-spots’ areas so that localised, as supposed to widespread, compaction problems are rectified before the next crop is established.

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653–682 D.L. Antille, S. Peets, J. Galambošová, G.F. Botta, V. Rataj, M. Macak, J.N. Tullberg, W.C.T. Chamen, D.R. White, P.A. Misiewicz, P.R. Hargreaves, J.F. Bienvenido and R.J. Godwin
Review: Soil compaction and controlled traffic farming in arable and grass cropping systems
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Review: Soil compaction and controlled traffic farming in arable and grass cropping systems

D.L. Antille¹, S. Peets²*, J. Galambošová³, G.F. Botta⁴, V. Rataj³, M. Macak³, J.N. Tullberg⁵, W.C.T. Chamen⁶, D.R. White², P.A. Misiewicz², P.R. Hargreaves⁷, J.F. Bienvenido⁸ and R.J. Godwin²

¹CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Black Mountain Science and Innovation Precinct, Clunies Ross Street, GPO Box 1700, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
²Harper Adams University, Engineering Department, Newport Shropshire, TF10 8NB, United Kingdom
³Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Faculty of Engineering, Tr. Andreja Hlinku 2, Nitra SK94976, Slovakia
⁴Universidad Nacional de Lujan, Departamento de Tecnología, Ruta 5 and Avenida Constitución, Luján 6700, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina
⁵University of Southern Queensland, Centre for Agricultural Engineering, Handley street, Toowoomba QLD 4350, Australia
⁶CTF Europe Ltd., Church Road, Maulden, Bedfordshire, MK45 2AU, United Kingdom
⁷Scotland's Rural College, Dairy Research and Innovation Centre, Hestan House, Dumfries DG1 4TA, United Kingdom
⁸Universidad de Almería, CIMEDES. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales (Edificio B), Ctra. Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, ES04120 Almería, Spain
*Correspondence: speets@harper-adams.ac.uk

Abstract:

There is both circumstantial and direct evidence which demonstrates the significant productivity and sustainability benefits associated with adoption of controlled traffic farming (CTF). These benefits may be fully realised when CTF is jointly practiced with no-tillage and assisted by the range of precision agriculture (PA) technologies available. Important contributing factors are those associated with improved trafficability and timeliness of field operations. Adoption of CTF is therefore encouraged as a technically and economically viable option to improve productivity and resource-use efficiency in arable and grass cropping systems. Studies on the economics of CTF consistently show that it is a profitable technological innovation for both grassland and arable land-use. Despite these benefits, global adoption of CTF is still relatively low, with the exception of Australia where approximately 30% of the grain production systems are managed under CTF. The main barriers for adoption of CTF have been equipment incompatibilities and the need to modify machinery to suit a specific system design, often at the own farmers’ risk of loss of product warranty. Other barriers include reliance on contracting operations, land tenure systems, and road transport regulations. However, some of the barriers to adoption can be overcome with forward planning when conversion to CTF is built into the machinery replacement programme, and organisations such as ACTFA in Australia and CTF Europe Ltd. in Central and Northern Europe have developed suitable schemes to assist farmers in such a process.

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121-128 Z. Kviz, M. Kroulik and J. Chyba
Soil damage reduction and more environmental friendly agriculture by using advanced machinery traffic
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Soil damage reduction and more environmental friendly agriculture by using advanced machinery traffic

Z. Kviz, M. Kroulik and J. Chyba

Department of Agricultural Machines, Technical Faculty, Czech University of Agriculture in Prague,Kamycka 129, 16521 Prague, CzechRepublic;
*Correspondence: kviz@tf.czu.cz

Abstract:

Nowadays, the agriculture technologies using guidance systems during field operations are more and more common all around the world. Machines without satellite navigation in fields have a tendency to pass-to-pass errors, especially unwanted overlaps, resulting in waste of fuel and pesticides, longer working times and also environmental damage. Finally, such errors can be taken as useless additional costs of farming. When utilising satellite guidance for field operations, the pass-to-pass accuracy can be significantly improved and thus it is possible to make the agriculture production more efficient. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate advantages and real possibilities of using advanced machinery guidance systems with regard to energy consumption and efficiency and also more environmental friendly agricultural operations. Real pass-to-pass errors (omissions and overlaps) in a field were measured on different tractor-implement units with and without guidance system utilization. The outcomes from our measurements revealed that there is a statistically significant difference between the total area treated by machinery without any guidance system and machinery using precise guidance systems. It means, better accuracy of machinery passes in fields with guidance systems could help with energy and material savings. Namely the fuel, seeding material or chemicals can be saved up to 6% from a single field operation.

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