Controlled traffic farming (CTF) is the start of a journey – a journey to reduce production costs and increase yields while improving soil health and delivering positively to the environment. It works on the principle that “if it’s not broken, you don’t need to fix it”. Much of the time and energy we put into soils is to undo the compaction damage we have caused by driving machines all over them.

It's almost certain that controlled traffic farming would not be creating so much interest or uptake if we didn't have satellite guidance and auto-steer. These are great enabling technologies but for controlled traffic farming you need to buy into a highly accurate and repeatable positioning system.

The best pass to pass accuracy provided by free satellite signals is limited to ± 30 cm, but subscription services will provide between ± 5 - 10 cm (e.g. Omnistar HP or John Deere SF2). BUT, the pass to pass accuracy quoted for these systems is time dependent; it will not re-position machines in exactly the same place if this time limit is exceeded, which is normally around 15 minutes. Outside this time limit, the error could be much larger and none of these "satellite-based correction signals" are capable of bringing machines back to exactly the same place year in year out. So, they are okay if you just want pass to pass accuracy, but they are unsuitable for Controlled Traffic Farming which requires a correction signal called "Real Time Kinematic", or RTK for short. Only RTK is guaranteed to steer your vehicles in exactly the same tracks indefinitely.

Members can learn more about GNSS and Auto-steer on our dedicated web page which also offers links to a wide range of suppliers and a short presentation highlighting some of the key factors which you need to consider when buying into this technology.