Precision Tractoring

[daTeacha]

So I'm listening to "The Farm Hour" as I'm getting ready for school this morning. There's a little segment that opens with mention of a guy who sits down to a nice dinner -- while riding in his tractor as it drives itself across a field planting wheat and he monitors what's going on behind the tractor on the screens in the cab. Impressive, but nothing too new.

Then they interview a guy who is thinking of upgrading to a new GPS system that will improve his tractor positioning in the field. His current equipment allows him to place spray, seeds, etc. with a 4 to 6 inch accuracy for the edge of his pass. The new stuff will allow him to place his equipment with an accuracy of 1 inch!

That seems like overkill until he explains that 6 inches overlap spread over a 1/2 mile long field means about 2640 square feet of field that is covered twice in two passes and that can add up to a lot of overapplication or underapplication or extra expense when you're working 1000 acres or so.

All I can say is --- Wow! And then wonder how long it takes to amortize the cost of the equipment in savings, earnings, and EPA fines avoided.

 

[Doc_Bob]

That seems like overkill until he explains that 6 inches overlap spread over a 1/2 mile long field means about 2640 square feet of field that is covered twice in two passes and that can add up to a lot of overapplication or underapplication or extra expense when you're working 1000 acres or so.

Similar to the efficiency studies being done all the time. The one I remember is the study on how much they could reduce the amount solder used to close a tin can lids (obviously done decades ago). Saved a lot of solder when you consider billions of tin cans. Same thought process in this story of 6 inches versus 1 inch.
Bob

 

[shaley]

I notice that in the near future most of the consumer GPS receivers will add a new channel called L2C. They are saying about a 6" accuracy and that is from a $100 receiver. Currently three place decimal readout give you about +-6ft. and the cost starts going up from there. If you want that GPS to control something like a spray machine or a grader blade start adding more bucks.
There is a good GPS tutorial on the Trimble site
Trimble - GPS Tutorial

 

[rback33]

So I'm listening to "The Farm Hour" as I'm getting ready for school this morning. There's a little segment that opens with mention of a guy who sits down to a nice dinner -- while riding in his tractor as it drives itself across a field planting wheat and he monitors what's going on behind the tractor on the screens in the cab. Impressive, but nothing too new.

Then they interview a guy who is thinking of upgrading to a new GPS system that will improve his tractor positioning in the field. His current equipment allows him to place spray, seeds, etc. with a 4 to 6 inch accuracy for the edge of his pass. The new stuff will allow him to place his equipment with an accuracy of 1 inch!

That seems like overkill until he explains that 6 inches overlap spread over a 1/2 mile long field means about 2640 square feet of field that is covered twice in two passes and that can add up to a lot of overapplication or underapplication or extra expense when you're working 1000 acres or so.

All I can say is --- Wow! And then wonder how long it takes to amortize the cost of the equipment in savings, earnings, and EPA fines avoided.

I think all the big farmers in my area now use guidance systems of some kind. Even a close buddy of mine (young farmer) has one and he doesn't have NEAR the acreage of the "Big Guys." Most of the systems they are using are saying 2" accuracy. I can just think of the money saved and increased yields if those were around when I worked for one of those "Big Guys" in high school and college... and I could pull a pretty straight line with a 52' cultivator and packers.

 

[flusher]

I notice that in the near future most of the consumer GPS receivers will add a new channel called L2C. They are saying about a 6" accuracy and that is from a $100 receiver. Currently three place decimal readout give you about +-6ft. and the cost starts going up from there. If you want that GPS to control something like a spray machine or a grader blade start adding more bucks.
There is a good GPS tutorial on the Trimble site
Trimble - GPS Tutorial

GPS is great.
I used my Garmin iQue3600 to check the alignment of the fencelines when I bought my 10-acre parcel in early 2005. These parcels are perfectly square with one furlong (660-ft) sides aligned with the compass points. When I put the GPS unit on the tops of the corner fence posts, the longitude readings on the ends of North-South sides and the latitude readings on ends of the East-West sides agreed to +/-0.001. The survey maps were done around 1903 and the fences look at least 50 years old.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

So I'm listening to "The Farm Hour" as I'm getting ready for school this morning. There's a little segment that opens with mention of a guy who sits down to a nice dinner -- while riding in his tractor as it drives itself across a field planting wheat and he monitors what's going on behind the tractor on the screens in the cab. Impressive, but nothing too new.

Then they interview a guy who is thinking of upgrading to a new GPS system that will improve his tractor positioning in the field. His current equipment allows him to place spray, seeds, etc. with a 4 to 6 inch accuracy for the edge of his pass. The new stuff will allow him to place his equipment with an accuracy of 1 inch!

That seems like overkill until he explains that 6 inches overlap spread over a 1/2 mile long field means about 2640 square feet of field that is covered twice in two passes and that can add up to a lot of overapplication or underapplication or extra expense when you're working 1000 acres or so.

All I can say is --- Wow! And then wonder how long it takes to amortize the cost of the equipment in savings, earnings, and EPA fines avoided.

Precision farming has other advantages too. Modern combines have the ability to chart yields over a field. It can help determine fertilizer needs, compaction in certain areas, even drainage needs. Input from the combines monitor can be plugged in to the computer on the fertilizer spreader/sprayer for adjusting fertilizer rates in specific areas in the field. . Also, the planter can use that same info to more usefully dole out starter fertilizer next season, by putting more where it's needed. The information from the monitors are so accurate, it's not uncommon to recognize compacted tire tracks from the tractor and planter, or last years combine tracks.

Prior to GPS, it was almost impossible to plant corn at night. With GPS guidance, 24 hour a day planting is now possible.

 

[NewToy]

We went to one of those outdoor power equipment shows in Columbus, OH a while back. There were a few vendors with all the GPS stuff and it was amazing. I had no idea the level of sophistication that went into planting corn. I was very impressed with it. I'll bet there are some old school farmers that are intimidated by all the techno wizardry, same as some old folks I know that won't go near a PC.
John

 

[ovrszd]

We went to one of those outdoor power equipment shows in Columbus, OH a while back. There were a few vendors with all the GPS stuff and it was amazing. I had no idea the level of sophistication that went into planting corn. I was very impressed with it. I'll bet there are some old school farmers that are intimidated by all the techno wizardry, same as some old folks I know that won't go near a PC.
John

Careful now, one of these days you'll be one of those old folks and they'll have this new "floats on air" tractor and you'll be saying "no way I'm running that thing, I'll stick to my old tractor on wheels".

 

[daTeacha]

Do you suppose that floating tractor would reduce soil compaction, or would the downforce from the suspension mechanism cause more? Can we add to the "will it take off" thread?

 

[schmism]

Do you suppose that floating tractor would reduce soil compaction, or would the downforce from the suspension mechanism cause more?

ah this were the difinition of compaction (pounds per area) is important. if you spred the weight of the entire thing out over its entire surface area the pounds per sq foot is virtually negligable.

as for the fancy GPS computerized farming... it will never catch on. everyone wants "organic" food. cultivated by hand, harvested by horses that dont burn fosile fuels, no chemicials or persertivies added