GPS

Does anybody have GPS in their tractors? I am thinking Greenstar. Any comments?
Brian(MN)

Is your place that big???

No, but guys do have GPS and they don't run
thousands of acres. They use it for tillage,
fertilizer and spraying, planting, combining.
Brian(MN)

I'm givin you that look........ how would it be helpful? straight line, elevation? I was just poking but am curious now.

Dave

I'm curious, too. If it would help ensure that you didn't miss or double up when spraying or spreading fertilizer, I might be interested.

.
Autosteer

If your just looking for guidance, there are far cheaper (and better) ways to go than GreenStar. Raven cruizer, Agleader Edge or EZ guide, Outback, etc. If your looking to have the GPS control your equipment thru planter/sprayer/NH3 shutoffs, then there are other factors to think of. If you want shutoffs and have a GreenStar ready John Deere tractor, then yes, that's the way to go, if for no other reason than the plug and play capability. If you have older JD/non JD equipment, then I would go with an Agleader Insight/Invicta/Edge, as they are far more user friendly than the GreenStar. My $.02.

My renter has that in several units- they also transfer between units when wired properly. Easy to spend 15 grand on a system that controls within an inch of where you should be, less accurate tracking is cheaper. Also an annual fee from the provider, like JD. He yield maps with the combine, uses that info in the spring for variable rate fertilizer application, with exact parallel passes, autosteer on tillage eliminates skips and overlaps, same with the sprayer. Can shut off nozzle groups on point rows, restart when it should. Planting, he makes half the turn and the tractor lines itself up. Can be set up to raise and lower the planter without skips and overlap. Control row groups (or singles) on point rows. Considerably less operator fatigue on long rows, combine stays on the rows at high speed, coupled with auto header height control, lotsa acres per day. Side benefits- locating spots in a field- he can drive a new tile line and map it for future reference, strike a new land from one end of the field, at any angle from the starting point. Systems are getting very common here with grain farmers, agronomy suppliers.

I got a little handheld hiking/camping model - it helps me with elevations, calculating field acres, etc. Be sure to look for one that does acres, handy feature - go to a hunting store where they know what these are; Best Buy & the like only know the car navigation types & give you a blank stare when you ask there.

The one's like Brian ask about are integrated into the tractor & implement, can steer the tractor for you to keep it parrallel so you don't overlap, the more you spend the more percise they are, can plant with them, keep the rows within an inch or less, the planter will even shut off individiual rows so you don't waste seed overlapping the end rows, etc.

You just watch the monitors and turn around on the end rows.

--->Paul

Their very helpful, we run a pair of low cost WAAS corrected GPS units (5 years) that are accurate to within 4-6 inches, plenty accurate for our needs, thats even good enough to do soybeans in 15 inch rows.

So slick and easy that you never want to look at a mechanical or foam marker again.
We added auto steer to one sprayer tractor a couple years ago, much more accurate than you can drive manually and sure takes a load off the tractor operator on long days. Also gives the driver time to look the sprayer over for plugged nozzles or other problems while the tractor is driving itself arrow straight down the field.

We seed , fertilize , spray and roll 2000 acres using GPS to keep us on line.

I would guess that aprox 75% of area farmers now use GPS in place of markers.

First thing we noticed when using GPS in place of foam markers on sprayers or just an eye ball guestimate with the seeding equipment, was that skips are eliminated and overlap is reduced enough that we got aprox 10% more acres out of a tank of herbicide or a drill box of seed / fertilizer.

We are in prairie pot hole country where it is common for some fields to be cut into several sections by a sloughs or potholes. It is really neat to drive along the road and look at the GPS guided wheel tracks in the field. All the wheel tracks seperated by pot holes or sloughs lineup exactly. Makes it easy to identify the folks that still don't have GPS. ;-)

That chinese gps trinket is for the lazy bed wetter with more money than good sense.

I have it in my sprayer, best $2500 I ever spent. Full mapping capability. My partner has one that he transfers from tractor to tractor, it sure is nice to keep straight passes and avoid overlaps and skips.

Once you use one you will wonder how you got along without it. It releives a lot of driver fatigue and just plain guessing about where you are and where you are going.

My brother sprays for a living, and states that 10 - 15% lap savings are perhaps on the high end.

He will also coment that many farmers would realy enjoy a 10 -15% discount on their purchases.

He claims there is a no questions asked, return on your investment.

O.K. lets back up to the real simple put it on a 4 wheeler and drive around the field. It tells you how many acres are in the field.. What is the best brand or unit.. Have it in my pickup for driving and would never be without it again.
But I need the unit to do the acre thing,, somebody tell me what to buy.

Bob - you appear to be obsessed with bed wetters. . .

We have an Outback S2 and an EZ-Guide Plus. The outback is cheap and does just fine. However, the EZ-Guide is way more complex, has more creature features and does just as good of job while still being easy to use. I'd go for the EZ-Guide, depending on what your future plans are there are three versions... Plus, 250, and 500.

I think the best to get is Raven Envisio. Great system, expandable for auto shut offs and autosteer stuff.

Raven has the 'last pass' feature in the program, a raven exclusive I think. Great for begineers or pro's for broadcasting fertilizer, spraying, ect.

Learn about how much BS you have to go thru with some of the other systems if you decide to switch patterns in a field, then you will see the magic of the raven setup on last pass

Hi Paul. What unit do you have if a may ask?

We are intersted in some sort of GPS. I have reasearched WAAS-GPS units on the net. We use a hard-hose irrigation system to irrigate irregular shaped field. It will follow the hose when pulled back to the pulling unit. We cover appox. 170 ft wide. We always allow for variation in side by side pulls. We are now going to be injecting fertilizer so must be more accurate. also everyonce in a while the sprikler will stall out. Would like to have some way of knowing when this happens. I can observe most of area from the house and have the well pump so I can turn it off by radio control.
Old man has got nothing better to due than think up some new gaget. Any ideas? My e-mail is open
gitrib