Profitability of Controlled Traffic in Grass Silage Production

Abstract

Controlled traffic farming (CTF ) systems aim to reduce soil compaction by restricting machinery field traffic to permanent traffic lanes. Soil compaction and field traffic from heavy machinery is known to affect crop growth negatively. Grass-clover silage production is generally associated with intensive field traffic, resulting in reduced silage clover content. If CTF can increase yield and clover content in grass-clover leys, this would reduce the need for grain and expensive protein concentrate in dairy cow feed rations. However, the CTF system often involves changes to machinery systems. This cost must be examined when evaluating the profitability of converting to CTF . A mixed integer programming model has been developed to evaluate the potential profitability of CTF in a dairy farm context. Existing field trial data were used to calculate the expected yield outcome of CTF, based on reductions in trafficked area. The results revealed that CTF increased profitability by up to €50 per hectare when silage yield or quality increased with CTF. Total machinery costs are likely to increase when converting to CTF, but variable machinery costs are likely to decrease. Overall, if CTF increases yield or silage quality, the system is profitable despite the major investment required. This chapter addresses agronomic as well as practical aspects of CTF systems for grass silage production.