Information

Controlled Traffic Research – McCreath’s Property

Level 1 General description

Purpose:

The purpose of the study was to investigate the economic and environmental benefits of adopting controlled traffic (CT) practice in south west Queensland. The project looked at the following:

  • Compaction;
  • Overlap;
  • Fuel efficiency saving;
  • Soil water retention;
  • Erosion/Runoff; and
  • Implementation of CT.

Methods (brief)

Flumes were installed at 4 sites in September 1998 to measure runoff and suspended sediment concentrations at the outlet of the contour bay for one year. Pluvioumeters, measuring rainfall intensity (minimum time step 1 min), were installed at each site. Erosion rills and deposition areas were mapped by ground observation after runoff events. Surface cover and roughness were measured visually at regular intervals.

Key findings (brief)

The study showed a direct relationship between depth and drawbar load. However, there was no significant variation between the average draft force with and without the tynes. There was no conclusive data collected that could be used to relate draft reduction (due to fewer tynes) to fuel efficiency.

Location

McCreath’s property is located east of Pittsworth.

Related studies

Aisthorpe, Coggan, Gibson, Uebergang, Valler

Key references and sources of this data synthesis

These data summaries have been extracted from:

  1. Rattray D: Field notes, 1999.