Controlled Traffic Farming

The purpose of the CTF method is to establish year-round, fixed tramlines for all work operations in arable farming in order to avoid permanent soil compaction in the growth area. NEXAT is optimally and unrivaled designed for this process.

Each year, up to 39 billion tonnes of fertile arable land is lost around the world due to wind and water erosion. The main cause for this alarming development is permanent soil compaction as a result of the ever larger machines we use. In conventional farming, 60–80 % of cropped areas are driven over at random, causing them to become compacted unnecessarily. They then have to be repeatedly loosened up during the crop cultivation process. This results in high CO2-emissions, deteriorating soil quality and more frequent erosion.

  • Growing loss of best arable land
  • Soil compaction as a core problem
  • Destruction of finite resources (soil, fossil energy)
  • Hardly any increase in efficiency possible with existing technology (digitization)

Billion tons erosion / year

  • Random Traffic Farming 70% 70%
  • Controlled Traffic Farming 20% 20%
  • NEXAT 5% 5%

Permanent compaction of the arable soil

The disruptive, innovative NEXAT crop production system is based on the principles of controlled traffic farming, or CTF for short. This involves splitting a piece of arable land into traffic and cropping zones in order to limit the soil compaction to just the tracks. This protects the soil structure, improves water infiltration and moisture capacity, and consequently prevents erosion. The CTF method is facilitated by ultra-precise satellite-based guidance systems. Numerous studies provide evidence of the agricultural benefits created by switching to controlled traffic farming, including improvements in soil health, increases in yield and savings on capital investment.

Video: NEXAT – Controlled Traffic Farming

However, the CTF method has been limited by the technology available until now. On the one hand, perfectly coordinating the various track and working widths for each piece of farm machinery involved in the production process and maintaining it all year round is a complex undertaking. On the other it is almost impossible to reduce the percentage of over driven land any further. Until now!

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Reduced track share compared to RTF

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Reduced track share compared to CTF

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Permanently untraveled area

NEXAT reduces the lane share by 90 % compared to today’s common practice of Random Traffic Farming and compared to today’s CTF concepts by up to 75 %. Its wide-span cultivation method also enables farmers to consistently overcome the typical challenges faced in CTF, such as optimum straw management, allowing CTF to be implemented consistently throughout the year.

NEXAT – Next Generation Agriculture Technology!