Dealer invents Tram-Rite for his customers: tramline is a management tool for precise chemical applicator marking.

Although GPS is being installed on more and more farming equipment, tractor dealer-turned-inventor Jim Lafferty continues to sell a device that allows a tractor-driver to keep up with where he is in the field. It turns the seed flow on selected rows of a grain drill on and off to create paths through ultra-narrow row cotton, small grain and soybean.

When Lafferty first introduced his tramline-making device 15 years ago, the response was positive, but not overwhelming. Today, even with intensive farming more accepted than ever, the Tram-Rite still hasn't proven to be hugely popular. Then, again, GPS doesn't seem to be selling as much as some thought it might, either.

Both technologies are suffering from the same problem: Intensive crop management hasn't caught on because grain prices have not motivated growers to be intense, says Lafferty. "It's not the price of the equipment. Today $2,100 isn't a lot of money. However, in Kentucky there is a lot of interest in intensive small grains, and so we do pretty well in that area."

He designed the tramline-making device after hearing researchers explain that intensive crop management methods worked better with tramlines. Crop consultants and Extension specialists insisted to farmers that tramlines, which were popular in Europe, were a part of the new management that could double yields.

Split applications of N caught on fairly quickly and with the help of hundreds of salesmen from chemical firms, the benefits of carefully applying fungicides, growth regulators and insect controls were soon understood. Of course, equipment firms were happy to explain the benefits of buying a new narrow-row drill.

But tramlines have been slow to catch on, according to Lafferty, one of the owners of Greenline Farm Equipment, a John Deere dealership in Fredricksburg, Virginia. He admits to being disappointed that more growers haven't been more interested in using tramlines as part of their farm management. However, Greenline Farm Equipment remains the only source in the nation for an electronic tramline kit for grain drills.

His Tram-Rite has proven itself reliable and those farmers who have used tramlines are sold on the device, Lafferty insists. "I don't know of anyone who tried tramlines and stopped," the 63-year-old dealer/inventor says quietly. "Sometimes people buy a new drill and use it without our tramline equipment, but then they'll put it on the drill the next year. Once they've done that, they're spoiled to any other way."

Lafferty claims his tramlines allow for precise chemical applicator marking. He points to Virginia Tech research that shows the average applicator operator will lap the coverage from 7 to 10 percent, which results in direct financial loss, plus crop performance.

"Plants that have received double the rate of chemical may lodge causing difficult or delayed harvesting and also may cause poor quality grain samples," the report concludes.

Douglas Garrett, a grower in Rappahonnock Academy, Virginia, installed Lafferty's equipment in 1994 when he bought a new drill, and he has only good to say about it. "The equipment works just as it should. It's not difficult to layout the tramlines, and there are all kinds of benefits.

"I got back more than the $2,000 I spent on the Tram-Rite equipment the first year I used it," Garrett notes. "We had a severe cereal leaf beetle hit our wheat, but we didn't aerial spray. With the tramlines in place, I was able to do the spraying without paying the guy with the airplane."

"I love tramlines," says Garrett. "I like how we have gotten skips and overlaps down to a minimum. We project what we need to spray on each field and we're able to get exactly the amount we should on the crop. You're saving five percent on your chemical costs right there by avoiding overlaps. Who knows how much more we get in yield from having every plant get what it needs.

"It makes it easy to keep up where you are in the field." Garrett, who does all of his own planting and spraying using 45-foot booms, adds, "We've sprayed at night, and with tramlines in place, it wasn't a problem seeing where to go."

Tramlines were first pushed for intensively managed small grains, but narrower row soybeans and narrow-row cotton should benefit from them as well.

"If you're using a Roundup Ready crop and you want to get into the fields late in the season to control weeds, then tramlines really make sense," notes Garrett. He doesn't plant Roundup Ready soybeans, but nevertheless uses tramlines on his drilled beans to go after corn earworms and escaped weeds.

"I've even tried to figure out how to put tramlines on my 15-inch row bean planter, but I couldn't make it work," he says.

The Tram-Rite equipment, built to the Lafferty's specs by Agri-Tronix Corporation of Franklin, Indiana, also includes two meters for field acres and total acres, as well as shaft monitors to indicate that a shaft has failed to turn when drill is in a planting mode. A seed-drop sensor was added to the control box last year.

In addition to farmer testimonials, recommendations from Extension specialists, encouragement from crop consultants, and support from the National Wheat Growers Association, Lafferty's Tram-Rite also had a tax incentive for a short time because it was seen as a tool to help farmers protect the environment. One year an environmental group offered to buy farmers tramline equipment and another year a chemical firm offered a cash rebate to growers who used tramlines.

Lafferty says he has sold about 2,000 of the Tram-Rite units, mostly to better farmers who are involved in their communities. Yet, he believes that sales of his equipment have not come near to reaching its potential.

"At least growers know what a tramline is now," he concludes. "Ten years ago most growers had no idea what I was talking about. Now, it's getting them to make one more investment in managing their crops. If you're going back into the field to spray more than once, tramlines are worth the effort."

Benefits of tramlines

* Reduces spray "lapping" and "missing."

* Easier to see where to drive.

* Limits the compaction to the tramline.

* Allows spraying on wetter soils.

* Reduces crop damage caused by wheels.

* Makes night application practical.