My friend is, in my eyes, a gigantic farmer. Plants corn/beans on 25,000 acres per year. He's had auto steer Deere equipment for several years now. His largest field is 1 mile long. His employers complain of boredom. One said he carries books in the cab and reads while going thru the field. They rent my tillable ground. I watch in amazement as they turn around at the end of the field, then tilt the wheel forward, cross their legs, and enjoy the ride across the field to the other end.
He is excited now about Kinze's new self propelled auto steer grain cart. He says it will link into the Deere system. With locators in the semi trucks waiting to be loaded, the cart will go to the combine when it's near full, accept the dump of grain, and go to the semi waiting on the road, dump the grain into the trucks, then wait for the next command.
He also warns that even though the accuracy of these systems is amazing, i.e., planting within 1.5", they haven't perfected field obstacles. It doesn't see washed out ditches across the fields or power-line poles that cross the fields for the first time. But once an obstacle is avoided it remembers and if not told differently, will again avoid that obstacle next year.
When they are planting or harvesting on a large farm where all of their equipment is there I love to sit out of the way and watch. It's amazing.
With all that said, my friend is reluctant to accept Drones. He sees them as an invasion of his privacy and appropriately believes governmental restrictions are wayyyyy behind the availability of the technology. When I said I favored Drones, he asked if that support would continue when one hovers outside my living room window to see what I'm doing???? Good point....
