Forage machinery for Controlled Traffic Farming system

Hi, 

 

I'm working with a company that has not yet purchased its machinery for forage production (bales and pellets) so we're starting with a clean sheet for developing a Controlled Traffic Farming system. As far as possible, we want to get all (or most of) the wheels - particularly the heavier machinery, like forage trailers - running along the same width wheel tracks and minimise soil compaction. To quote someone else: "“Plants grow better in soft soil while wheels work better on roads”

 

The challenge is that ag machinery comes in a range of wheel track widths and working widths. Can anyone here point us in the right direction with regards to: 

 

1. Which width of wheel tracks is easiest to implement? 

 

2. Which working width is easiest to implement? 

 

I guess that primary tillage operations (like ripping and ploughing) won't "fit" the system. So perhaps we can ignore those? 

I'm interested in machinery for larger farms and guess the working width will fall somewhere between 10 - 20 metres (say 33 - 66 feet), but please correct me if I'm wrong. 

 

Hope the above makes sense. 

 

Thanks.

J.F.

Forage machinery for Controlled Traffic Farming system