Controlled Traffic or Mid-Row Seeding

[Ron]

CTF seems to be the new buzz-word, I am
wondering if any gains are more from the
mid-row seeding than reduced compaction.
Does anyone here use mid-row seeding?
Smart-hitch etc. Have you seen yield
gains?
I can understand gains in dry/windy
areas but in higher rainfall areas (15"
plus on average, not the wreck of a year
we all just suffered through) would
there be a benefit from mid-row seeding
or is direct seeding just as good?
Frost cycles should break up most
compaction and I think that with soils
saturated at freeze up they should
fracture more than dry soils would have
(trying to find a silver lining in the
rainfall of 2010).

With the cost of guidance coming down as
the accuracy goes up mid-row seeding
should become commonplace.
CTF looks like a pain in the ass to
modify equipment and try to match up
header size to seeding/spraying
equipment and what if you have a
breakdown and need to rent a machine in
the busy season? It looks quite
limiting and I need to see results
before I commit.

[craig]

Ron
Wanted to make a few comments as I have a little
experience with inter row seeding and was
fortunate to see CTF systems in Australia.
First inter row seeding is a component of CTF and
one that provides an incremental gain. Our
experience with inter row ( we farm near you) is that
we are seeing both better seed placement and
ability to do a better job in heavy residue
conditions. We can handle taller residue( canola)
which in past meant extra trips over field with
heavy harrow as well as retain more standing
stubble for winter wheat. It's also been suggested
that inter row reduces disease pressure from things
such as take all.
In regards to CTF our experience in Australia it
would indicate that we need to better understand
or define what we mean when we talk about
compaction. CTF is an effort to improve our soil
above that we would class is the norm. Frost cycles
may counter some of the damage we do with heavy
equipment in wet conditions but does little to make
the soil better. By not driving on areas where we
grow crops we accomplish a couple of things. First
we improve water infiltration and we saw
impressive examples of major rainfall events
quickly soaking into the ground. The second thing
we saw was a better soil environment also
improved soil biological activity. This improves
porosity at deeper depths. This builds an
environment with more soil moisture holding
capacity, better nutrient cycling, and an improved
ability of the plant roots to access both moisture
and nutrients.
You made the comment that the system looks like a
pain in the ass to implement but interestingly we
were told time and time again that once you had
the system up and running it is much easier to
operate than what we currently do . We were also
told that there will be times you will have to make
compromises due to difficult situations. In those
situations your gains will be less and often you will
visually see that the following year.
Efforts our happening to test CTF in our conditions
to help assist producers in making decisions on
whether they want to implement CTF on their
farms. I would suggest the best current strategy for
their farms is to start thinking about sizing
purchases of machinery so that it will fit into a CTF
system. If CTF looks promising then you will
already have some pieces of the system in place. If
you work on 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 sizing you will be able
to make things work.

[WildTomato]

I would suggest you begin inter-row
seeding first and worry about CTF
later. Once you get inter-row seeding
down, CTF is a natural progression
should you chose that path. I know two
guys who inter row seed and both claim
a reduction in plugging and faster
seeding speeds because the stubble on
either side reduces soil throw on to
the front rows. There's a lot of
intuitive reasons why inter-row seeding
will work but no research data. If
you're running Omnistar or Starfire
GPS, try a field next year and start
doing comparisons.

You could probably name a 1000 reasons
why CTF wouldn't work. Just sit back
and watch the results as more research
and farm experience becomes public. We
run a 30 ft CTF system and it doesn't
get any easier. No overlap or underlap
during seeding, spraying or harvest.
Big efficiency gains for us and no
wheel tracks slowing maturity down. We
straight cut everything while everyone
swathed in our area this year.

Gotta run. Good luck.
Steve