Juggling the roles of farmer and contractor – not to mention operating a controlled traffic system – can be decidedly tricky. But one Bedfordshire farmer-contractor is managing to make a success of several different roles.  

It is almost impossible not to get swept up in Robert Barnes’ enthusiasm for looking after the soil, as he discusses his min-till, controlled traffic farming (CTF) system.

This Bedfordshire farmer and NAAC contractor has continued to take brave steps away from conventional UK farming and is proving to his contracting customers that CTF can work both financially and environmentally.

See also: NAAC farm contractor charges 2015-16

Mr Barnes farms 280ha (700 acres) on his family farm and whole-farm contracts another 1,530ha (3,800 acres), with some further individual contracting operations, the largest being 800ha (2,000 acres) of contract combining.

He also runs a haulage business and grain storage operation.

Six years ago, with costs escalating, he realised that he needed to carry out a complete overhaul of his business. 

He had a clear vision of where his future lay, with the health and fertility of his soil central to his plans, and so set about what he describes as the hardest thing he has ever done.

Tough decisions were needed and after much soul-searching a massive restructuring was undertaken, requiring significant cuts in both staffing and machinery.

He spoke to all his contracting customers, offering a potential £100/ha saving under the new cultivations plan by moving to direct drilling and CTF.

A big step 

Initially everyone came on board. However, a change from conventional farming is a big step for many farmers and, as the dust settled, he ended up with about 50% of his customers moving to the new system, with the rest remaining on traditional cultivations (including some ploughing).

He acknowledges that CTF is not for everyone (and that some people still think he is mad) but there is clearly method in this madness.

A saving on his farm of 50,000 litres of fuel in the first year was certainly hard to ignore.

Steps were taken to minimise all other unnecessary cultivations and allow the worms and organic matter to take over and maintain the health of the soil, wherever possible.

Wheelings and tramlines became vital.

The farm initially started out on 10m wheelings to fit the dimensions of the combine cutter bar, training staff on the importance of keeping to the same wheeling’s to minimise soil compaction.

However, the introduction of a new Claas combine with a 12m cutterbar brought the business into a new era. Mr Barnes took the decision to shift everything to 12m wheelings to ease the problem of needing bespoke kit, which then tended to lose its residual value.

Not quite wide enough

However, frustratingly, he discovered that the new header was in fact only 11.98m wide. This left further thinking to be done.

In the end tramlines were based around the sprayer as it travelled the crop most frequently and needed absolute accuracy.

A nozzle at each end of the sprayer was shut off, and tramlines were set at 35m, which meant 11.66m wheelings.

This fitted the majority of off-the-shelf 12m width machinery, which helped make the economics add up.

The only final problem was that, at the time, a 12m direct drill was not available from John Dale, Mr Barnes’s preferred manufacturer.

But, with the support of the company, he set about designing and building his own 12m drill which is run with one coulter shut off at either end of the machine to fit the 11.66m system accurately.

In an ideal world, he says, he would like all his machines on exactly the same wheelings as his combine tracks (as they are fixed) but at the present this cannot be achieved exactly.

Being able to compromise has been important for this business.

The combine auger, for example, was a prime example, as it was too short to reach the chaser bins which have been part of Mr Barnes’s harvesting team for the past 20 years.

As a result, he runs the grain-carting operation so that there is some traffic on the soil. In fact 18% of land area is still put under pressure and compaction from machinery movements.

Contracting conflict?

Contractors rarely have a reputation for treating the soil with kid gloves but to Mr Barnes, this is central to his business plan.

So much so that it can make it difficult for his own business to get additional help if needed, as machines may not fit his CTF requirements, or be able to run within his RTK system.

Likewise, providing contracting services for other farmers has been focused on his contract farming customers to ensure that a package of services is offered to maximise the benefits of CTF, although this is only about 50% of his contracting business.

He acknowledges that CTF is most successful if run on a whole-farm basis, minimising the margin for error and keeping machinery widths consistent.

Single operations by a brought-in contractor are possible, but only if machine widths fit the farm’s dimensions and operators keep strictly to wheelings.

Mr Barnes does, however, respect each customer’s decisions on their businesses and still continues to use his plough, albeit on a reduced scale of operation.

When asked about his views on the NAAC’s lobbying to increase tractor and trailer weights and speed he is surprisingly positive and supportive. “I love big shiny new machinery like the next man,” he says. “But it is just not for me so much now.”

However  he is keen for the NAAC to push for increases in tractor trailer weights and speeds to help keep vehicles off the roads as much as possible.

Roadwork

“For roadwork there is no issue,” he says

“But if a 32t trailer is taken on the land it must stay on the wheelways. That way any potential damage and compaction can be mediated using cultivations targeted to the area/wheelways where damage needs rectifying’.

While Mr Barnes is clearly a keen advocate of CTF,  he keeps his sights fixed on a professional, economically sounds business built on facts and not idealism.

“It’s all about soil health as everything needs the medium to grow,” he says.

This is a man who is committed to the system and dedicated to making it work.

He is shortly to head to the US to learn more about soil health and increase his knowledge, plus seeking the evasive 12m cutterbar, an auger that fits his system and further improvements in his cover crop work.

Controlled traffic farming – a quick guide by soils expert Philip Wright

Controlled traffic farming (CTF) keeps all traffic to known wheeling (or lanes) in the field, during all operations. Clearly, tramlines make up a significant part of this, but it extends to all operations, including combining, drilling, and cultivations.

The traffic lanes are maintained at all times – so an accurate and consistent system is needed to keep traffic aligned. High-precision RTK navigation is needed, plus matched widths of equipment, and the system requires uni-directional travelling – in the same place at the same angle for all operations.

The need for matched implements means using 24m, 30m, 36m, and others, so, combine headers need to match, as do the unloading augers to allow trailers to unload down the same lanes, plus cultivations and drilling equipment.

It can be expensive kitting up to match these widths, however, this can be done progressively, getting gradually closer to the ideal. In the meantime, many benefits still accrue – namely avoiding random field trafficking and associated compaction which then needs deep cultivations to correct.

Many farmers adopt the basic principles and may not move to wholesale adoption for all kit. It depends on the rotation and on the cost of replacing existing kit.

Typically, CTF systems involve machines running on no more than 15% of the field, compared with standard systems where vehicles run on 50% or more over the course of the year.