Bochtis, Dionysis

Green, Ole

Jørgensen, Rasmus Nyholm

Olesen, Jørgen E.

Sørensen, Claus Aage Grøn

University of Southern Denmark Research Output

Syddansk Universitet
Field Efficiency of Slurry Applications Involving In-field Transports
Bochtis, Dionysis; Sørensen, Claus Aage Grøn; Green, Ole; Jørgensen, Rasmus Nyholm;
Olesen, Jørgen E.
Published in:
XXXIII CIOSTA CIGRV Conference 2009.
Publication date:
2009
Document Version
Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record
Link to publication
Citation for pulished version (APA):
Bochtis, D., Sørensen, C. A. G., Green, O., Jørgensen, R. N., & Olesen, J. E. (2009). Field Efficiency of Slurry
Applications Involving In-field Transports. In G. Giametta, & G. Zimbalatti (Eds.), XXXIII CIOSTA CIGRV
Conference 2009.: Technology and mangement to ensure sustainable Agriculture, Agro Systems, Forestry and
Safety. (Vol. 1, pp. 947-952). Distafa - Università degli Studi “Mediterranea” di Reggio Calabria.
General rights
Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners
and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.
            • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.
            • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain
            • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ?
Take down policy
If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately
and investigate your claim.
Download date: 11. Jan. 2017
XXXIII CIOSTA - CIGR V Conference 2009, Reggio Calabria (Italy)
“Technology and management  to ensure sustainable agriculture, agro-systems, forestry and safety”
and IUFRO (Unit 3.06.00) Workshop
947
 
XXXIII CIOSTA - CIGR V Conference 2009, Reggio Calabria (Italy) 
“Technology and management  to ensure sustainable agriculture, agro-systems, forestry and safety” 
 
Field Efficiency of Slurry Applications Involving In-field Transports  
 
D.D. Bochtis1, C.G. Sørensen1, O. Green1, R.N. Jørgensen2, J. Olesen1 
 
1 University of Aarhus, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Agricultural 
Engineering, Blichers Allé, 8830 Tjele, Denmark. 
2 University of Southern Denmark, Institute of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and 
Environmental Technology, Niels Bohrs Allé1,DK 5230 Odense M, Denmark 
 
e-mail of corresponding author: Dionysis.Bochtis@agrsci.dk 
 
Summary  
 
Controlled traffic farming can significantly reduce the soil compaction caused from heavy machinery 
systems. However, using CTF in material handling operations executed by cooperative machines, the 
significantly increased in-field transports lead to a lower system’s efficiency. Recently, a discrete 
event model for the simulation of CTF operations executed by cooperating machines has been 
introduced. The use of this model makes it possible to estimate the extent of reduction of the field 
efficiency. In this paper, a field experiment involving slurry application under the conventional 
unconstrained traffic system and the corresponding operation under the CTF system are presented and 
analyzed.  
.  
Key word:  Controlled traffic, cooperative machines, machinery management. 
 
Introduction  
 
In Denmark, a large proportion of the fertilizer used in crop production is based on animal 
slurry due to the extent of animal production. However, due to the use of heavy machines  
for the slurry transportation and application, the soil is affected in a negative direction as a 
result of the increased compaction.  
 
The introduction of Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF) in heavy machinery operation 
consitutes a countermeasure to soil damage. According to the basic principle of CTF, 
permanenent  parallel wheeltracks  (also called tramlines) are established in the field area 
and used for machine trafficking. The limitation of the trafic to the tramlines provides for a 
number of benefits such as elimination of soil compaction within the cropped area  
(Chamen et al., 2003), increase in crop yield and energy savings (McPhee et al., 1995), 
reduced CO2 outlet and less use of water (Reicosky et al., 1999).  
 
However, drawbacks of CTF have been reported as well, such as the need to acquire 
specilised machinery, which affects the overall economy (Chamen and Audsley, 1993) and 
the loss of cropped area due to permanent wheel tracks and expenses due to the creation 
and maintenance of wheel tracks. Furthermore, the constraints of the paths for traversing 
the field may reduce field efficiency in the case of cooperative machines as in the slurry 
application case. CTF does not permit random turnings and may require the machine to 
drive in empty mode along the traffic path in order to be serviced by a refilling unit.  
 
XXXIII CIOSTA - CIGR V Conference 2009, Reggio Calabria (Italy)
“Technology and management  to ensure sustainable agriculture, agro-systems, forestry and safety”
and IUFRO (Unit 3.06.00) Workshop
948
 
XXXIII CIOSTA - CIGR V Conference 2009, Reggio Calabria (Italy) 
“Technology and management  to ensure sustainable agriculture, agro-systems, forestry and safety” 
 
 
It has not previously been possible to estimate the actual field efficiency of operations, 
involving multiple machines in CTF systems. Recently, Bochtis et al., (2009) have 
proposed a discrete event model that can simulate both CTF as well as Un-Constrained 
Traffic Farming  (UCTF). The model makes it possible to compare CTF and UCTF, for a 
given operation setup and enables the estimation of the field efficiency with respect to time 
and travelled distance. In this paper, a field experiment involving slurry application under 
the UCTF system and the corresponded simulated application under the CTF system are 
presented and analyzed.  
 
Materials and methods  
 
This section describes the experimental setup for the field operation and introduces the 
discrete event model used for the corresponding simulation.  
 
Experimental Setup 
A Massey Ferguson 4840 tractor, pulling a tank with 14.6 m3 capacity, was used as the 
refilling unit while a self-propelled Terra-Gator, with 13.5 m3 tank capacity, was used as the 
application unit.  
 
The recording of the operations activities involved the logging of the position and the 
application status of the slurry applicator. As data acquisition tool for the slurry applicator, 
a module comprising a TC65 Siemens Terminal® with a built in modem was connected to 
the implement computer for data extraction. This terminal encompasses a Java™ software 
development platform with a wide range of standard interfaces plus GPRS class 12 
functionality.  Finally, a sensor was mounted on a switch indicating the on/off status of the 
trailing hoses. The sensor comprised a standard wheel sensor (2 nodded reed sensor), which 
is activated through a magnet. In this case, it was mounted on the regulating lever, so that 
the magnet was activated when no slurry was applied. The customized sensor together with 
the GPS sensor, a Holux GR-213 capable of delivering a NMEA 0183 GGA string via a 
RS-232-compatible serial port, were connected to the terminal unit for wireless transmitting 
of data to a dedicated server configuration (Sørensen & Thomsen, 2006). The Basic setup is 
shown in Fig. 1. 
 
Simulation Model 
The discrete event model developed by Bochtis et al. (2009) constitutes a simulation model 
capable for simulating both UCTF and CTF operations taking the coordination of multiple 
machines into consideration. The model is based on the mathematical formulation of the 
discrete events regarding the motion of the machines and is implemented using the 
MATLAB technical programming language. The overall flow of the model is shown in Fig. 
2. 
The model’s input includes information regarding the field area (geometry, obstacles 
presence and tram-lines configuration), the operation (application rate, coordination 
strategy) and involved machinery (specifications of the machines).  
 
As an output, the simulation results the segmentation of operation’s time and travelled 
distance for each part of the implemented machine system. Based on this detailed 
XXXIII CIOSTA - CIGR V Conference 2009, Reggio Calabria (Italy)
“Technology and management  to ensure sustainable agriculture, agro-systems, forestry and safety”
and IUFRO (Unit 3.06.00) Workshop
949
 
XXXIII CIOSTA - CIGR V Conference 2009, Reggio Calabria (Italy) 
“Technology and management  to ensure sustainable agriculture, agro-systems, forestry and safety” 
 
information, the efficiency of the system can be estimated. During validation of the model 
it has been shown, that the error prediction in terms of the totalled travelled distance was in 
the order of 1 %. For a thorough description of the specifics of the model, refer to Bochtis 
et al., (2009). 
 
 
Figure 1: The overall experimental setup. 
 
 
 
 
Figure 2: The overall flow of the discrete event simulation model. 
 
Results  
Experimental UCTF 
The GPS recordings of the UCTF experiment operation are illustrated in Fig. 3. The 
experiment was carried out by a manually driven tractor with auto-steering, equipped as 
described above.  
Simulated CTF 
The mean values of the operational measured parameters during the experimental UCTF 
field operation were used as part of the simulator’s input in order for the simulation to be as 
realistic as possible. These parameters are given in Table 1. The field geometry as well as 
the tramlines’ localizations was specified by the GPS recordings from the UCTF 
experiment. 
XXXIII CIOSTA - CIGR V Conference 2009, Reggio Calabria (Italy)
“Technology and management  to ensure sustainable agriculture, agro-systems, forestry and safety”
and IUFRO (Unit 3.06.00) Workshop
950
 
XXXIII CIOSTA - CIGR V Conference 2009, Reggio Calabria (Italy) 
“Technology and management  to ensure sustainable agriculture, agro-systems, forestry and safety” 
 
 
 
Figure 3. GPS recordings for experimental UCTF operation 
 
Table 1: Parameters from actual operations used by the simulation model 
 
Figure 4. Pie charts showing the distributions of time, for CTF and UCTF respectively. 
 
Discussion and Conclusions 
A comparison of the results from the UCTF experiment and the CTF simulation shows that 
the efficiency is slightly lower for the CTF (Fig 4, Table 2). The decrease of the efficiency 
in the CTF case is due to in-field transport. As it has been shown by the CTF simulation, 
the idle non-working travel distance can increase significantly when the refilling unit is not 
Mean effective distance 603.55 m 
Mean operating Speed 3.10 m/s 
Mean headland turning speed 2.02 m/s 
Mean transport speed / empty tanker 3.21 m/s 
Mean transport speed / full loaded 1.53 m/s 
Mean transport speed / partial loaded 2.08 m/s 
Mean loading time 379 s 
CTF (Simulator) UCTF (experimental) 
 
 
X II CIOSTA - CIGR V Conference 2009, i  l
“Techn logy and management  to ensure sustainable agriculture, agro-syste s, f r t
 
 
 
Figure 3. GPS recordings for experimental UCTF operation 
 
Table 1: P ram ters from actual operations used by the simulation model 
 
Figure 4. Pie chart  showing the distributions of time, for CTF and UCTF respectiv l . 
 
Discussion and Conclusions 
A comparison of the results from the UCTF experiment and the F si l ti
th  eff ciency i  slightly lower for the CTF (Fig 4, Table 2). The decreas  f t
in the CTF case is due to in-field transport. As it has been sho n by t   
the idle non-working travel distance can increase significantly hen the r filli
Mean effective distance 603.55 m 
Mean operating Speed 3.10 m/s 
Mean headland turning sp ed 2.02 m/s 
Mean transport speed / empty tanker 3.21 m/s 
Mean transport speed / ful  loaded 1.53 m/s 
Mean transport speed / partia  loaded 2.08 m/s 
Mean loading time 379 s 
CTF (Simulator) U  (e i
XXXIII CIOSTA - CIGR V Conference 2009, Reggio Calabria (Italy)
“Technology and management  to ensure sustainable agriculture, agro-systems, forestry and safety”
and IUFRO (Unit 3.06.00) Workshop
951
 
XXXIII CIOSTA - CIGR V Conference 2009, Reggio Calabria (Italy) 
“Technology and management  to ensure sustainable agriculture, agro-systems, forestry and safety” 
 
located in the direction that the machine is travelling when the tank empties, because the 
machine must execute an 180o turn upon reaching the headland and drive back along the 
track towards the opposite headland to refill the tank. In addition, there are cases where the 
machine has to travel over a part of a track without applying slurry, in order to reach the 
position where the previous application was terminated. As a result, implementing CTF for 
this kind of material handling operations can affect field efficiency by significantly 
increasing non-productive in-field transport. This causes decisions regarding the operation 
of the machinery system to become critical. However, it is expected that in-field transports 
can be reduced by optimizing the coordination of machines, e.g. through coordinated route 
plan optimization. Thus the efficiency can be improved, and at the same time the benefits of 
CTF can be maintained. 
 
Table 2 : Table showing comparison of time.  
 CTF   
(simulated) 
UCTF 
(experimental) 
Time: 
Total Operating time 5,482.59 s 5,092 s 
Turnings 459.69 s 406 s 
Full 520.48 s 320 s 
Partial 26.42 s 84 s 
Non productive time 
Transport 
Empty 456.03 s 281 s 
Efficiency: 
Inclusive loading 24.93 % 26.53 % Field Efficiency 
Exclusive loading 48.31 % 56.53 % 
 
References  
 
Bochtis, D. D., Sørensen, C. G., Jørgensen, R. N., Green, O., 2009, Modelling of material 
handling operations using controlled traffic, Biosystems Engineering, 1-12. 
Chamen, T., Alakukku, L., Pires, S., Sommer, S. Spoor, G. e Tijink, F. e Weisskopf, P. 
(2003) , Prevention strategies for field traffic-induced subsoil compaction: a review: 
Part 2. equipment and field practices. Soil and Tillage Research, 73(1-2):161 – 174. 
Experiences with the Impact and Prevention of Subsoil Compaction in the European 
Union.  
Chamen, T., Audsley E., 1993. A study of the comparative economics of conventional and 
zero traffic systems for arable crops. Soil & Tillage Research, 25, 369-390.  
McPhee, J. E.,  Braunack, M. V.,  Garside, A. L.,  Reid, D. J.,  Hilton D. J.,  1995. 
Controlled Traffic for Irrigated Double Cropping in a Semi-arid Tropical Environment: 
Part 2, Tillage Operations and Energy Use. Journal of Agricultural Engineering 
Research, 60(3), 183-189. 
Reicosky, D. C., Reeves, D. W., Prior S. A., Runion G. B., Rogers H. H., Raper R. L., 
1999. Effects of residue management and controlled traffic on carbon dioxide and 
water loss. Soil & Tillage Research, (52), 153-165. 
Sørensen, C. G.,  2003. A Model of Field Machinery Capability and Logistics: the Case of 
Manure Application. Agricultural Engineering International: The CIGR Journal of AE 
Scientific Research and Development, Vol 5, ISSN 1682-1130. 


Field Efficiency of Slurry Applications Involving In-field Transports

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of Southern Denmark Research Output