Carl,

I just completed planting the 17th winter wheat crop here in SW Ontario using tramlines. Personally, even with the great guidance systems now available (and we have RTK), I would still plant my wheat (and solid-seeded soybeans) with tramlines.

In the fall, if you have to spray for aphids/weeds/disease, your 'lanes' are in. In the spring, our soil conditions are usually pretty marginal, but crop injury isn't an issue when UAN is applied with streamer bars. We then turn around and make a herbicice pass, but usually well before jointing.

The big advantage is when we apply fungicide. In our case, we are using triazole chemistry at head emergence. If one drives over, or even pushes the plant more than ~30 degrees off the verticle, the heads are lost in terms of being harvestable. The wheat mashed down on the ground also becomes problematic as 'volunteer', especially in reduced tillage systems.

We do not double crop, so the stubble stands until fall, and then we use the same lanes to apply glyphosate. I still don't have a lightbar on my sprayer tractor, and a 2.5 gallon jug of foam concentrate will last me about 10 years (spraying 6000 acres per year), as I only use it with a little bit of custom spraying, and in corn where I drop a couple of globs at the end to help me make the turn.

Tramlines have also been useful in soybeans since '02 when we have started to manage soybean aphids (spraying at R3-R5). Either call in the aircraft, or use your own ground rig. Beans, like wheat will not "spring back up" once driven over, so it becomes a yield loss. With tramlines, we 'part' the bean canopy, slide through with the sprayer, and do minimal crop damage. Fortunately (?), your month of 100 degree days keeps the aphids away, but it might be uselul if you have to manage SBRust - if you solid seed.

I'm pretty sure Don Glenn has tramlines, so he might be some more 'local' information.

For hardware, we have used a "Tram-Rite" kit, built and sold by a Deere dealer in VA, but I suspect that the gentleman may be retired by now. Two years ago, his booth at Low'vul was vacant, and I missed last year. It employed a console that is programmed for number of passes between lanes, and used a couple of special feedrolls that have clutches. It has worked flawlessly for 17 seasons, but if I was doing it today, I'd look at the Amity kit because it looks easier to install.

We have a 20' 750 Deere drill, and use a 60' sprayer. Lanes go in every 3 passes. If I was to go to a 30' Air Seeder, and stay with the 60' sprayer, I'd just plug one tube all the time, and plant the tramline straddling the guessrow (would work with a 40' seeder and 80' boom too). It might take some strategy when starting out, but after that is fool-proof and is cheap...

I hope Phil Needham chimes in here too.

Luke   aka Ken SWOnt