llamedos
New Member
Posted on behalf of @Graham A.B Edwards
Farmers interested in attending the Conservation Agriculture [CA} conference in Hitchin must firstly consider the FEWER work tasks that follow from the introduction of CA-Zero -tillage.There are only a few tasks in no-till as the ECAF Conference [final paper] April 2014 illustrates.These tasks are Direct-seeding,Fertiliser Spreading,Spraying of Chemicals & Transporting the crop from the combine to the storehouse. Rather less work indeed!!.[ECAF is the European no-till federation in Cordoba,Spain]
What this means is that because there is no Ploughing or rotovating there is no need for draught control but,much more importantly,the farm tractor & no-till Ag-machinery combinations can be much LIGHTER & much faster so as to reduce soil-compaction, & fuel consumption but increase the productivity of the labour & machinery.
Whilst it is clear that HEAVY Ploughing tractors [32 million used every day] can pull the Seed-drills,the fertiliser-spreaders, the chemical sprayers & the farm trailers .......they can only do so at an exorbitant fuel-cost [because they are heavy] & at a very low productivity level [because they are designed to be slow}.
There are very important and vastly changing Implications for the world`s farm machinery designers & manufacturers as the world`s volume of no-till reaches [2014] to over 154 Million hectares worldwide.
This conference in Hitchin is particularly significant to the somewhat slow pick-up & understanding of a whole new kind of farming system so well presented in the 6Th Hugh Bunting lecture at Reading University,"the Future of Farming What Needs to Change"G
Farmers interested in attending the Conservation Agriculture [CA} conference in Hitchin must firstly consider the FEWER work tasks that follow from the introduction of CA-Zero -tillage.There are only a few tasks in no-till as the ECAF Conference [final paper] April 2014 illustrates.These tasks are Direct-seeding,Fertiliser Spreading,Spraying of Chemicals & Transporting the crop from the combine to the storehouse. Rather less work indeed!!.[ECAF is the European no-till federation in Cordoba,Spain]
What this means is that because there is no Ploughing or rotovating there is no need for draught control but,much more importantly,the farm tractor & no-till Ag-machinery combinations can be much LIGHTER & much faster so as to reduce soil-compaction, & fuel consumption but increase the productivity of the labour & machinery.
Whilst it is clear that HEAVY Ploughing tractors [32 million used every day] can pull the Seed-drills,the fertiliser-spreaders, the chemical sprayers & the farm trailers .......they can only do so at an exorbitant fuel-cost [because they are heavy] & at a very low productivity level [because they are designed to be slow}.
There are very important and vastly changing Implications for the world`s farm machinery designers & manufacturers as the world`s volume of no-till reaches [2014] to over 154 Million hectares worldwide.
This conference in Hitchin is particularly significant to the somewhat slow pick-up & understanding of a whole new kind of farming system so well presented in the 6Th Hugh Bunting lecture at Reading University,"the Future of Farming What Needs to Change"G