Farm of the Week: Reducing the traffic lights way to better crop yield

It is not about putting up speed cameras for fast cattle, or setting up traffic lights where fields meet up. It is about making sure that fewer wheel tracks are used in crop-growing fields and how that can effectively increase crop yield.

Mr Manfield farms on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds, near Market Weighton, nearer the village of Sancton, and Hessleskew Farm runs to around 200 hectares where he grows wheat, malting barley, oats, oilseed rape, vining peas and seed potatoes, which in terms of finance is now his most significant crop.

His grandfather bought Hessleskew shortly after the Second World War, with Mr Manfield's father and then himself farming here ever since.

His quest for useful innovation has taken him on regular visits to the European mainland, particularly Germany, Holland and Belguim, and what he has learned he is now putting into practice at Hessleskew.

"This is about getting the optimum crop," he says. "I feel quite strongly that UK agriculture has to be very careful not to fall into the mindset of 'cut, cut, cut'. It's very easy to get into negative ways and there are very few industries that have gone forward and developed following constant cuts. Yes, we all want to save money, but if we invest where there is longer-term benefit we can grow the business."

Traffic control is a way of getting more crop for less nitrogen – thanks to precision application – which is useful both financially and environmentally.

"That's particularly important where we farm as we are in a nitrate sensitive zone here," says Mr Manfield. "Controlled traffic and the incorporation of precision farming techniques and auto-steer systems are just some of the ways forward.

"What we are trying to do is to match up the implement widths and multiples of implement widths so that we can utilise the same farm machinery wheelings for all operations from cultivation to spraying, to combining and chasing bales off the field. Instead of having wheelings right across the field they will only be every six metres or so. That way, there will be large parts of the field that are not trafficked. In a traditional system the amount that is trafficked can be close to 100 per cent. This way, up to 70 per cent will not be trafficked at all, so the opportunities for improvement in soil quality are dramatically increased.

"When areas are trafficked extensively, there is no easy way of knowing where the damage is being done to the tilth. When you are trying to remedy the damage across a field it is difficult because the field has been managed in a random manner.

"That means ploughing the damage out or subsoiling the whole field. What we are trying to do is to confine the damage to limited areas and critically we know where those areas are, thanks to controlled traffic and GPS technology. What we're doing is a development of satellite-based systems and we are already seeing really good benefits from this in the soil quality.

"We have been particularly fortunate to have found an auto-steer system called RTK, which stands for real time kinematics. This utilises a base station located within working distance of the machine and acts as a fixed reference point that can correct errors that may come from purely satellite-based systems. It ensures you can follow your previous tracks to within less than an inch of where you were previously."

However, surely the cost of auto-steer on top of purchasing new equipment to ensure that all machinery matches the set tracks will be prohibitive? Having made the investment himself, Mr Manfield says it is worth it.

"Sometimes you have to invest to make money. We have learned a tremendous amount through RTK and traffic control and we are now starting to reap the benefits. We have made a substantial capital investment but we didn't change the most expensive machines, the tractor or the combine. Essentially we changed a drill and a cultivator. By the time we had swapped one implement for a second-hand version we didn't have a lot of additional money to find because we were going for widths that were readily available on the machinery market."

Mr Manfield says being open to new ideas is the key to moving UK farming forward. "We must adapt, innovate and react to what we see on the ground. I have been fortunate to have known good people in the industry who have directed me. One of those is my good friend and agronomist Christophe Bommes from Germany. It was through him that I became interested in areas such as fertiliser spoke-wheel injection.

"He also has a strong interest in precision farming and controlled traffic techniques and it was through him that I developed my own interest in these. I have travelled extensively in Germany and Holland with Chris-tophe, meeting clients and customers, farmers and manufacturers."

Mr Manfield has taken on the UK distributorship of RTK auto-steer systems with his cousin and neighbour Peter Southwell.

He says: "Peter has come in with me as a partner. He is a practical farmer and also has a strong interest in precision farming techniques. Together we are looking to push auto-steer systems further forward in this country so that other farmers can benefit.

"The product itself is Dutch and the company is the world leader in implement auto-steers, which ensures that the tractor and whichever implement is being used remain perfectly in line."

In addition to this enterprise he runs a small contracting operation, a straw business, taking straw from his own and neighbouring farms and selling it in the winter. He also carries out contract spraying.

Call 07944 426086 or see www.rtksolutions.co.uk/

CW 24/7/10