A win for emissions

University of Gatton Queensland researcher and Australian Controlled Traffic Farming Association (ACTFA) executive member, Dr Jeff Tullberg, told the conference, more than 200 individual sampling events over a four-year period had provided convincing evidence.

Each sampling event involved taking four gas samples from each of four replicated traffic treatments win sampling areas ranging from Toowoomba, Queensland to Esperance.

Emission samples came from CTF beds (crops), CTF lanes (tracks) and ‘random’ wheeling or traffic.

ACTFA, in partnership with the National Centre of Engineering in Agriculture at the University of Southern Queensland, has led a $1.4 million ‘Action on the Ground’ project to investigate the emissions impact of CTF.

“Data from this work shows that average emissions of ‘random’ and tramline soil were 130 per cent and 80pc, respectively, greater than those of crop beds,” Dr Tullberg said.

“This confirms that CTF, with 12-15pc trafficked area, should reduce emissions of grain cropping by 30-50pc and also reduce the loss of fertiliser nitrogen.

“From a climate viewpoint, wheel tracks double Greenhouse emissions and nitrogen loss whereas CTF beds will reduce losses by 30pc.”