Realistic savings to be gained from auto steer

BLG · Apr 24, 2015

ZXR17 said:
I am considering using auto steer.
What realistic savings could be gained.
The farm is 210 ha of arable. Cultivations are mainly 2 sometimes 3 passes with a 3m Simba express or cultipress. Flat lift used when required. Drilling is with a 4.8 m tine drill. Rolling 6.3 m.
Spraying and liquid fert with a 24m sp sprayer.
Combining 6m header.
Work is all done by myself + student at harvest.
I think my driving is relatively accurate , Liquid fert over lap is showing from zero to average 1 dribble bar, more on side sloping ground.
Culivations and rolling are probably more inaccurate after all its the drilling that I and everyone sees all year!
I am thinking of a Trimble FM 750 + Ez steer which would then easily move from machine to machine. I could then in future get more from it with variable rate etc But , only the sprayer at the moment is capable of doing this. The drill is totally manual.
Obviously ease of use and less fatigue will be my biggest gain but the boss is going to want to know in £'s.

I started with about the same area as you, though more passes, about 8-9years ago, with a Trimble Lightbar. Thought it was the bee's knees but in reality I was spending more staring at the lightbar than at the implement. Moving to auto steer was a huge advance - this was a Trimble 500 + Ez steer - but moving the Ez Steer around can be a pain unless you are doing it seasonally. Now have two tractors set up with auto steer through the power steering, fantastic.
Pros; Pretty well covered in the posts but it comes down to how you use it. We have all our paddocks pre-mapped so if the gate is in the middle, for example, the operator will drive straight in and start working skipping across to each side and back to the gate, headlands, and then out. Sounds minor, but multiply that by 80 odd fields that I have and 3-5 passes and it adds up.
You have a semi, or less, skilled operator you still have have to teach them as you used to but a least his/her lines will be straight and efficient!
Cons: Trees become your worst enemy when you loose signal. You will make mistakes setting up and mapping but that gets better with practise. Just like machinery break downs happen. Our dealer owned base station went down and they lost the co-ordinates from when it was set up 10yrs ago. It's back up but all my 78 fields have moved about 1.8mtrs to the NE! I've got to spend the winter remapping every field with a ATV!!

Honest john · Apr 24, 2015

Auto Steer, It's like Air Con, once you have had it, you would never be without it.

Brisel · Apr 24, 2015

True. Operators don't want to go without it when it breaks down either.

Salopian_Will · Apr 24, 2015

As rape is normally broadcast these days, it becomes almost indispensable for putting in tramlines.

Daniel · Apr 25, 2015

You can be on TFF whilst power harrowing.....

It's pretty good, I've got Rangepoint at the moment. I set all my fields up with the sprayer by driving round the headland and it worked out the tramlines. Trouble is when you come back 3 weeks later it's all shifted, and pressing the set to current button never quite brings it back perfectly square. So although my tramlines are perfectly set, I actually drove it normally last time.

Honest john · Apr 25, 2015

Daniel said:
You can be on TFF whilst power harrowing.....

It's pretty good, I've got Rangepoint at the moment. I set all my fields up with the sprayer by driving round the headland and it worked out the tramlines. Trouble is when you come back 3 weeks later it's all shifted, and pressing the set to current button never quite brings it back perfectly square. So although my tramlines are perfectly set, I actually drove it normally last time.

With RTK you don't get that drift.
Until the base station losses power !

BLG · Apr 25, 2015

Brisel said:
True. Operators don't want to go without it when it breaks down either.

I tell them to use the other GPS - the big round thing between their hands!!

Fendt · Apr 25, 2015

John 1594 said:
they looked better after i had been over them with the planter. In all fairness, its a job to get a good first pass with a 3 bed machine, as you are so far away from the boundary, and being in a hurry the a/b line always gets set by just driving along the boundary with the machine out of work, setting the line then nudging it over for the first true pass

i always have to sort the headlands out "freehand" as the autosteer is so twitchy, it doesnt seem to like gradual curves

If the A/B line was set with the machine out of work then the first bout should be perfectly straight. I would suggest from your picture that the steering sensitivity settings are wrong for the job you are doing, and a bit of time spent sorting them out would be better than sitting on here moaning that you can drive it better manually.

Robt · Apr 25, 2015

It was driven freehand first time while recording curve track. Think fen boy is hinting the chap can't drive for toffee . Does straightening it up not make some beds too small and some to wide

Fendt · Apr 25, 2015

exactly my next point. If you drive a planter across those wiggly beds trying to straighten them up, all you are doing is making some too wide and some too narrow. Then even rtk on your harvester won't help you!

Fendt · Apr 25, 2015

John 1594 said:
reminds me of when i was sent out with a simba paddle press what was driven via rtk, owner was adamant it was 3.8m as thats what he was sold it as....every bout had a line of clod next to it where the machine didnt quite work to the last pass

driven by eye, just narrow enough so it didnt leave the line of clods, i made a better job than he did. Wasnt really suprised at that either.

Perhaps time spent getting the working width of your implement right would have saved you some time and fuel in the long run.
If you've invested in the technology why not make the most of It? And before you argue that the technology isn't working properly might I suggest that by the sound of it its actually you who doesn't understand it or want to really use it.

Will 1594 · Apr 25, 2015

John 1594. Your eyes will never be this accurate and able to put trammys in exactly same place We did a trial plot with a 4 row strip tiller. Then went over it with 12 row drill. Rtk can do this You will never ever match it. You may well be a good operator but it will make your job easier and better. And narrower your machine the more saving And makes drilling through night easy. Shall have to get you to come and experience. Itech pro

BLG · Apr 25, 2015

Robt said:
It was driven freehand first time while recording curve track. Think fen boy is hinting the chap can't drive for toffee . Does straightening it up not make some beds too small and some to wide

I've seen that happen in maize fields. Done it myself. In hurry field hasn't been premapped and try to map it while planting the first headland then find the first RTK run over or under laps the freestyle one.

clbarclay · Apr 26, 2015

Daniel said:
You can be on TFF whilst power harrowing.....

It's pretty good, I've got Rangepoint at the moment. I set all my fields up with the sprayer by driving round the headland and it worked out the tramlines. Trouble is when you come back 3 weeks later it's all shifted, and pressing the set to current button never quite brings it back perfectly square. So although my tramlines are perfectly set, I actually drove it normally last time.

I find with rangepoint, the time it takes to converge to full accuracy is more of a problem than the drift. If I use gps steering the momment its converged enough to allow it, then it effectively drifts for the first few bouts as the signal converges more accurately. Given time to fully converge then it doesn't need much, if any, nudging. Not helped by trees overhanging the tracks in places, so usually can't keep the signal converged all day.

John 1594 · Apr 26, 2015

Fendt said:
exactly my next point. If you drive a planter across those wiggly beds trying to straighten them up, all you are doing is making some too wide and some too narrow. Then even rtk on your harvester won't help you!

Believe me we wont have any trouble harvesting those beds. Maybe you should have asked whats being planted in them though, for the record they were gladioli bulbs

The harvester is between 5ft and 6ft tall, usually weighs between 10-14 stone, and of eastern european manufacture

Marsh lad · Apr 26, 2015

Carl won't be happy with you if there his beds your straightening out .

John 1594 · Apr 26, 2015

Marsh lad said:
Carl won't be happy with you if there his beds your straightening out .

They were, no chance of getting the gladi planter round those bloody squiggles anyway

Gadget · Apr 26, 2015

John 1594 said:
have just moved up to a set of 6m rolls, so work across the field in the tramlines, missing every 6m, then work back across filling in the gaps, certainly makes the headlands less chewed up, combine is 12ft, so a multiple of the 12m tramli

By my reckoning if you are cutting 12m tramlines with a multiple of 12ft combine, you must be over drilling by 3ft

John 1594 · Apr 26, 2015

Gadget said:
By my reckoning if you are cutting 12m tramlines with a multiple of 12ft combine, you must be over drilling by 3ft

Picture speaks a 1000 words, does it look like i have 3ft overlap in the picture????

DrWazzock · Apr 26, 2015

Serious question here. how does auto steer cope with working across a hillside where normally you would have to drive topside of a bout marker line to allow for the crabbing and down hill creeping of the drill outfit, for example?

Realistic savings to be gained from auto steer

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Attachments

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

0 %

Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

Share this page