DELEGATES at the annual conference of the Australian Controlled Traffic Farming Association (ACTFA) in Canberra were all asking the question: “Why isn’t everybody doing Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF)?”
But nobody had the answers.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows 88 per cent of crop farmers in Australia use no CTF practices.
ACTFA believes CTF adoption has the capacity to double productivity and that 50pc adoption across the farming sector is achievable within 10 years with targeted funding.
It’s a confusing story – many growers and researchers recognise the proven benefits and massive changes to farm productivity, sustainability and resilience to climate variability that CTF brings.
CTF is a farming system approach that optimises the management of natural and purchased resources as the fundamental first step – get these basics right first.
The three basic components are controlled traffic (permanent wheel tracks and matching machinery widths), zero or reduced tillage and residue retention, and farm planning to manage runoff and farm efficiencies.
These components cannot be disputed as best practice – they are just commonsense – but combining them within the farming system is rare.
On-farm performance has shown high and increasing benefits to productivity, water use efficiency, soil and landscape improvement, and farmer capabilities and lifestyles.
It is also easy, effective and efficient to build on the CTF basics with
no-tillage, precision agriculture and new GPS-based technologies.
Most growers recognise CTF offers multiple benefits and are keen to do it, but for many reasons seem to think it is all too hard – machinery, layout, contour banks, soils, environments, industry, and over-arching all of these, the cost.
There are now many proven on-farm examples of successful adoption in response to all technical and resources issues.
These are no longer constraints.
But, for it to happen, growers have to make the decisions to change.
It’s a farming system change, a relatively complex series of interactive decisions during a period of time, which require clear planning and consistent, appropriate advice.
Growers talk to many advisers about this.
There is only one group of five private consultants in Australia actively working to assist growers with CTF adoption across all industries.
Many growers have attempted to change to CTF but have not been advised how to “do it right”, such as the imperative that standardising machinery on permanent wheel tracks should start with the harvester.
Most direct support personnel have little understanding or experience of on-farm CTF adoption, particularly as a fully integrated system.
Any comments of uncertainty, any “sitting on the fence”, from advisers will be a major constraint on growers changing to CTF.
CTF setup requires advisory skills during the initial stages that are probably best left to the CTF specialists, but achieving the production, economic and sustainability benefits depends on the full range of advisers supporting the on-farm change.
This team approach is a major opportunity, as we expect farm profits would generally double.
Some support services, for example, in machinery, machine guidance and data management, are readily available.
Growers are increasingly concerned with a lack of research support for their CTF systems.
They are doing their own research while paying levies for programs that are irrelevant.
And institutional support of CTF is a conundrum.
CTF and the recent developments with spatial technologies have all been supported by industry research and development corporations, and State and federal governments.
But ongoing development and on-farm adoption have not been widely supported.
Leadership is needed, particularly from the Federal Government, which is well-positioned and has the most to gain.
ACTFA has asked for Federal Government funding to develop a leadership team and specified funding to be allocated for CTF adoption support, training for service industry personnel, and research and development for established systems and new applications, such as in the vegetable and fodder industries.
ACTFA suggests if only five to 10pc of relevant institutional budgets were allocated, adoption on at least 50pc of farms could be achieved in 10 years.
With the doubling of productivity, that would bring benefits to the national economy, the vitality of rural industries, and the vibrancy of rural communities.
Don Yule is a director with CTF Solutions in Brisbane. Email don@ctfsolutions.com.au or contact (07) 3871 0359.
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