Controlled traffic experiences and results in a diversified vegetable industry

By isolating traffic impacts from crop growth areas, controlled traffic provides a number of farming system benefits including improved energy efficiency, soil health, crop yield, timeliness and economics. The gradually increasing adoption of CTF in the Australian grain and cane industries has been largely based on a limited equipment suite and flat to mildly sloping topography. The Tasmanian vegetable industry faces a very different scenario, with a wide diversity of machinery, and topography ranging from gently to steeply undulating.

Research into controlled traffic in the vegetable industry has shown improvements in soil physical conditions can be achieved in a short time. Experiences with the demonstration of controlled traffic on commercial farms have highlighted issues, such as tracking stability on slopes, which need to be addressed for successful adoption in a diversified vegetable industry.

Very few machines used in the vegetable industry are designed to be compatible with a common track or working width, a requirement of fully integrated controlled traffic. While some implements can be modified reasonably easily to suit controlled traffic, many others (e.g. single row potato harvesters) provide few options for change. Seasonal CTF describes a system in which all tillage and crop management operations are conducted on accurately mapped tracks, but random harvest traffic is accepted on account of the incompatibility of track and working widths of harvest equipment. Seasonal CTF represents a reasonable starting place for adoption in the vegetable industry until more compatible machinery is available.