Greg Daws

Tramlines are an attitude

An attitude of full season crop management

A good attitude to have

Tramlines by definition are "Unseeded trips in fields that match the wheel tread width of spray applicators." The distance between tramlines equals the boom width of the applicator. These roadways improve timeliness and application accuracy of fertilizers and crop protection chemicals if they are needed.

Tramline Benefits

1. Precision Application

2. Environmentally sound -- looks good

3. Less chance of disease due to damaged plants

4. Expands window of application

5. Grower commitment towards better management

6. The first step in GPS spray program

7. Year round marks for no-till farming

8. Reduced operator fatigue

Precision Application -- Economics, efficiency, and environmental concerns dictate the need for precision application. A good applicator without a marking system averages 10-15% overlapping. A good operator using a foam or paper marking device averages 7-10% because of the flaw in deep perception. It is very difficult to be looking 40-60 feet to your right or left while traveling 8-15 mph and tell how close the end of the boom is to a piece of paper or foam and at the same time stay straight. Overlapping is more the norm than skipping because no one likes to go to the coffee shop and hear about "THE SKIP". "THE SKIP" can be the most horrid thing to happen to a farmer in the month of June. Your kids ask about "THE SKIP", your wife tells the "SKIP STORY" every time you have relatives over, your retired Father asks about "THE SKIP" until you can tell him it has gone to seed and disappeared. If God likes you he will put "THE SKIP" in a place where only the airplane pilots can see it. You can't imagine how nice it is to go skipless for an entire year and know that it didn't cost an extra 10% in chemical cost to do it.

Environmentally Sound -- Tramlines give the perception of accuracy and perception is the name of the game when it comes to the non-farmers. If it looks good non-farmers think it is good. In the high rainfall areas of the country split applications of nitrogen are becoming the norm due to leaching and run-off so tramlines help greatly to facilitate this practice. It is nice to be able to look someone in the eye and tell them you are doing the most precise spray job possible As I eluded to earlier, if you can eliminate the overlapping and reduce the chemical use of 7-15% it is a major step forward in slowing the move toward restricting the number of chemicals available.

Less chance of Disease Due to Damage Plants -- When plants are run down by spray rigs they are more likely to succumb to disease infection. This serves as an excellent source of inoculum from which disease can spread to healthier plants. The damaged plants also produce grain which matures later. The wheel tracks may disappear in the fields but on average the grain is 1-1.5% wetter than the rest of the field at harvest. In straight cut fields this can be a noticeable difference.

Expands window of application - - Ever try to spray a wheat field at dusk or after dark? Early morning, late evening or at night are ideal times to spray. Winds generally are at their lowest at these times. With tracks to follow it is easier to take advantage of the application windows. In addition, the ground in the trams gets compacted a little after the first pass. You can often make applications under marginal field conditions on subsequent applications. Weed kill is greatly increased in the evenings when compared with the weed kill in mid afternoon using the same chemicals.

Grower Commitment to better Management -- The commitment to use tramlines means you are interested in optimizing your yields. Tramlines facilitate better management and ease of using essential inputs. Tramlines completely change how you attack a problem in the field from insects, weeds, to next years crops. The farmer attitude is much more offensive than defensive with the tramlines in place to facilitate an aggressive approach to a problem. Increased field scouting ends to take place once a farmer starts to use tramlines.

The first step in GPS Spray program - - Global Positioning is the rage of the future. Having tramlines for the sprayer to drive in is the first step towards GPS controlled sprayers. GPS is going to encourage several spray applications in a spray season so it is of great advantage to have the train row to prevent crop damage as well as a visual guide of the sprayer to follow. Yes, we always hear that we will be using a light bar to guide the sprayers but they still put lines on airport runways, still put buoys in shipping lanes, in fact the Space Shuttle still uses manual control to land. They still do these things because humans like to have a visual reference to use. Tramlines will the farmers visual guide while using GPS. I think it will be a very good combination in the very near future.

Year-round marking for no-till farming-Tramlines are very helpful for preharvest applications as well as burndown applications. Tramlines in stubble are very visible and easy to see the year round. In the Eastern U.S. tramlines are used extensively in double-cropping situations. Their use has increased as the use of the stripper header had increased due to the long stubble and the ability of foam from foam markers to disappear into the stubble.

Reduced operator fatigue -- The reduction in operator fatigue is by far the nicest thing about tramlines. Once an operator becomes used to using tramlines it makes one of the most nerve wracking jobs on the farm a much more relaxed job. Imagine the mental state of someone driving about for 12 hours not knowing where he is. He thinks lie is close but not quite sure. If he realizes he is in the wrong spot and changes part way down the field he will make another misapplication when he comes back down the field.

Things to consider before using tramlines

1. Rows not planted (Train rows) should match sprayer equipment in BOTH track width and boom width.

2. Spray swaths should be at least 40'.

3. Harvesting can be difficult is a swath is laid in a tramline.

4. Erosion in extreme terrain.

5. Width of the tram row affects weed growth.

6. Quality of operators and availability of custom application.

1. Tram rows should match sprayer equipment in BOTH track and boom width. The spacing of the drill, row crop applications, and sprayer tire width are factors to consider when determining the width between the tram rows. The wider the better for boom stability. Most of the tramlines being used are in the 60"-90" range wide. The seeder and sprayer must also match up in multiples of 1, 1.5, 2, 1.5, 3, 4, - -etc. to ensure no skipping and overlapping. With the correct multiples extremely accurate application is possible. Something to remember is that your spraying is only as accurate as your seeding so a marker on the seeder is a definite plus.

A problem that we have noticed developing in the industry is that some of the large pull type sprayers have wheel tread widths so great that the tractor tires and sprayer tires cannot be lined up. If someone is considering tramlines this is something to be considered before an equipment purchase.

2. Sprayer widths should be at least 40' to keep the number of tramlines in a field at a minimum. It is recommended to keep the amount of trammed area at less than 5% by the University of Virginia Poly-Technical Institute. If you have a two 14" tram every 80' in your field you have trammed area of 2.9%. Two 14" trains every 90' would result in a trammed area of 2.6%. So in this situation bigger is better.

3. One of the few downfalls of tramlines occurs if the crop is swathed and laid in a tramline. It can be very difficult to pick up the swath if it is laid the length of the tram. If the swath is laid directly across or diagonally across the tramline it does not seem to be a problem.

4. Erosion in the tramline is something to be aware of. It has not been much of a problem but in certain situations I can imagine it to be a factor in deciding to use or not use tramlines.

5. Width of the tram row can affect weed growth. If a tramline is larger than 15" in width it is very helpful to double the plant population in the seed rows adjacent to the tramline. The extra plants help to use up the extra moisture and provide ground cover to slow weed development in the tramline. it appears that a tram width greater than 18" is not a very good idea in the more arid regions or if a tramline is anticipated to be used only for a broadleaf weed control application. Weed growth within the tramline is the most talked about problem with farmers because they relate it to a plugged seed run. Tramlines and plugged seed runs are really quite different because you have planned for the tramlines and will be driving in them. Doubling the seeding rate and installing a larger spray tip in the nozzle that is directly above the tramline are very effective in combating weed growth within the tramline.

6. The quality of the sprayer operator can be greatly improved by having tramlines in the fields. It is a no-brainier to follow tramlines. It makes spraying extremely easy and non-stressful. it is also much easier to get a custom applicator to be more timely if he knows he can work at your farm at night and not have to worry about misapplication.

On our farm the biggest advantage of the tramlines has been the ability to spray at night. We have been achieving far better weed control at night with less chemical. I cannot stand here and say how much less but it is significant. All of the chemical labels are designed to handle the most adverse situations that growers can throw at the chemicals. It only stands to reason that if we spray under the most ideal conditions, which usually occur from 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. we can reduce rates. How much, I won't say but it sure works well.

In the last three wet years, we have used fungicides in split applications with a great degree of success in yield increases. The key to success appears to be using a little fungicide in multiple applications. In this scenario the tramlines have been a very useful tool.

I live in the prairie pothole region on North Dakota so I am often asked how I like tramlines with all of the potholes. My reply is "The more potholes the better I like the tramlines". This is because of the fact that every time you turn your sprayer around you make another mistake. The more potholes, the more mistakes. If you are spraying a quarter section with an 80' spray boom you turn 33 times. Put a couple of potholes in that same field and you increase your number of turns quite quickly. Without tramlines every turn is another misapplication. If you spray 4 quarters a day with no potholes and your wife asks how the day went you have to tell her "I make 132 mistakes today". And that is without potholes, rock piles, or power poles.

The other advantage that I see developing for us is the pre-harvest herbicide applications. For the first time this past year we sprayed our entire wheat crop and have nothing but good to say about the weed control that we saw. If we can control some of these tough perennial weeds in the fall and can avoid some of the very expensive specialized chemicals in the spring we will be well on our way to significantly lower chemical costs.