Environmental impact and economical driving
Fuel, soil, noise and spills are the environmental questions for group T. The test expects you to know where a tractor wastes diesel in normal farm work, how maintenance and ballast affect consumption, and how to avoid polluting water and soil during refuelling, servicing and field operations.
Where the fuel goes
- Idling: a tractor warming up for twenty minutes every morning burns fuel for nothing; start, let pressure build, and move off gently.
- Wrong gear and high rpm: work in the torque band the manufacturer specifies rather than at maximum revs.
- Wheel slip: excessive slip wastes fuel and destroys soil structure; adjust ballast and tyre pressure to the implement.
- Poorly matched implements: an oversized plough on a small tractor means low gear and high consumption.
- Neglected service items: a blocked air filter, dirty injectors or under-inflated tyres all raise consumption.
Pollution and nuisance
Refuel with the engine off, use a funnel or a pump with auto-shutoff and keep a spill kit nearby; a spill on a yard can reach a ditch and a stream within minutes. Store and dispose of waste oil, filters and AdBlue containers through the proper channels - never on the farm tip. Avoid night work with noisy machinery close to housing where it can be scheduled otherwise, and keep dust down near roads and dwellings. Black exhaust smoke under load usually signals over-fuelling or a blocked air filter, not a healthy engine.
Worked example
A tractor idles 20 minutes a day at roughly 8 litres per hour, 250 working days a year. That is 0.33 h × 8 = 2.7 litres a day, about 670 litres a year. If the same tractor runs on tyres inflated 0.5 bar below specification, rolling resistance can add a few per cent to consumption - easily another 100–200 litres over the season. Both costs are avoidable without losing any work.
Traps that cost marks
- Believing a long warm-up protects the engine; it mainly burns fuel and glazes nothing.
- Adding ballast "for grip" without checking axle limits and fuel penalty.
- Refuelling in the field over a ditch or drain.