Mapping headland boundaries and headland autosteering

[Feldspar]

This is something I still haven't worked out how to do properly. With strip tillage we often can't see where the headland tram-line which makes spraying around the edges of fields accurately quite difficult.

Last summer I tried to get our Topcon system to autosteer round the boundary. I first started by driving right around the edge of the field by running the edge of one wheel right on the boundary that I wanted to spray. I put an offset in of half the width of the tractor and put the swatch width at 12m minus the tractor half-width.

That didn't really work because going right round the edge of the field meant that you were driving underneath trees and the RTK kept dropping out meaning the boundary was not accurate (and then in turn the headland guidance line wasn't accurate).

In some fields where our 8m drill had drilled the fields I was reasonably content to drive round the tramlines it left and map out the boundary from there. This isn't perfect though because occasionally we had drilled to close too the ditch and I wanted to correct that but couldn't.

The worse cases were where we had strip-tilled, not put in a headland tramline (because the multiple 3m drill passes mean it's never accurate enough, and pre-em you couldn't see it anyway). Then you didn't have the option of mapping from the tramlines, the driving right round the edge of the field tactic didn't work and so I was a bit stumped..

In the end I drove round the field ridiculously slowly with the sprayer unfolded to map the headland guidance line. This again isn't perfect because it takes ages, and if you make a mistake (which I did a lot), then you have to start all over again.

There must be a better way! How do you do it?

 

[Chickcatcher]

@Feldspar When you have cracked this I think you could become "A CONSULTANT" been there still no answers. and the bit that really threw me was it wouldn't steer the 1st round anyway. I feel we are going to get very cunning!.

 

[Feldspar]

The few fields that I have done by driving round the headland tram-line have worked well enough to get it to autosteer round most of the headland. I think having the steering wheel motor rather than plumbed in autosteer probably makes it not quite as impressive as it could be.

I've seen various other more elaborate methods used. I think PX Farms drove round with a UTV with an RTK receiver mounted on it right round the headlands. IIRC James Peck of PX Farms said that actually didn't work that well.

 

[Bomber101]

We use Trimble and farm works but the principle is the same. We mapped all the fields when they were in stubble by setting up a fake machine the width of the front axle, from outside the front wheel to outside. We then drove around all the fields and mapped the field boundaries. If the rtk dropped out due to trees we smoothed the line in farm works when we downloaded all the fields. We then drill, spray cultivate and any other pass to that boundary line. We also set up named preset lines for specific jobs, drill a b is always one before tram line and sprayer a b is always first pass in field. Now we pull into field and load field and relevant a b line and off we go. Headland auto steers to boundary line and is bang on tram line. We do go a bit slower on the headland to give the gps enough time in the corners to turn smoothly and if very tight we steer ourselves. Same principle as mentioned with a utv but the important bit is the correcting in farm works and then reloading the corrected data back to the GPS receiver.

 

[Chickcatcher]

@Bomber101 How do you get over that it will not engage steering on first trip round? 24Mtr Sprayer Fert 24Mtr Headland, 1 Circuit. R

 

[Bomber101]

@Bomber101 How do you get over that it will not engage steering on first trip round? 24Mtr Sprayer Fert 24Mtr Headland, 1 Circuit. R

I am being thick, why will it not engage on first pass? Are you trying to sterr before you have mapped the field? On our FMX we load the headland line from the drop down swath list, tell the FMX what machine we are using and how many headland passes we need and it automatically loads the headland line at the correct width to the boundary. We map the field before we do any steering.
When mapping a new field we call the tractor width mapping and set it up as described in my previous post. Once mapped and checked/corrected in farmworks it is set up and not changed unless we need to change something, rare but not unheard.

 

[Chickcatcher]

Could be I only have CFX750 but I keep trying.

 

[Bomber101]

Could be I only have CFX750 but I keep trying.

Farmworks will be able to edit line names and all of the above for a 750. We exported some lines to a 750 for a 36m avadex spreader and the field name came up and ab line named as avadex aswell.

 

[Chickcatcher]

Have to get "Farmworks"

 

[Bomber101]

It does make life easier!

 

[Badshot]

@Feldspar When you have cracked this I think you could become "A CONSULTANT" been there still no answers. and the bit that really threw me was it wouldn't steer the 1st round anyway. I feel we are going to get very cunning!.

Cut the trees down.

 

[Badshot]

Full auto steer from Trimble will steer first pass on the headland, the ez steer and ez pilot will not. Annoys me somewhat.

 

[Chickcatcher]

Cut the trees down.

Just planted another 1500. So Ez steer is the problem

 

[Badshot]

Just planted another 1500. So Ez steer is the problem

Keep em short then ;-)

 

[ks net]

It because its a 750! Not sure about ez-steer I think it does but been a while since I've been on it but ez pilot will definitely drive first headland with fmx/fm1000

 

[Chickcatcher]

Keep em short then ;-)

Dam Deer had The guards of 70 this week that we planted last year and ate off the stems.

 

[ks net]

Also if ur not fussed about colouring area covered, just put machine width at a third. That's what I do with 750 works for me

 

[clbarclay]

Too many trees in places here to set the boundry properly with the drill and I haven't justified the cost of farmworks or similar program to tweek them afterwards. This year I will add a marker arm to the rake (widest implement we have) and try marking boundries with the arm running against the hedge, fence or ditch edge, and hopefully that will keep the ariel far enough from the trees to map most fields accurately enough.

 

[7800]

We use Trimble and farm works but the principle is the same. We mapped all the fields when they were in stubble by setting up a fake machine the width of the front axle, from outside the front wheel to outside. We then drove around all the fields and mapped the field boundaries. If the rtk dropped out due to trees we smoothed the line in farm works when we downloaded all the fields. We then drill, spray cultivate and any other pass to that boundary line. We also set up named preset lines for specific jobs, drill a b is always one before tram line and sprayer a b is always first pass in field. Now we pull into field and load field and relevant a b line and off we go. Headland auto steers to boundary line and is bang on tram line. We do go a bit slower on the headland to give the gps enough time in the corners to turn smoothly and if very tight we steer ourselves. Same principle as mentioned with a utv but the important bit is the correcting in farm works and then reloading the corrected data back to the GPS receiver.

What correction signal are you on?
roughly how much is farm works (I don't think you can edit with the free version?)
I try to steer headlands with a 750 but it often 'smooths' corners which makes it tricky. Also have to use the third width trick and drive round the second lap in.

 

[Bomber101]

What correction signal are you on?
roughly how much is farm works (I don't think you can edit with the free version?)
I try to steer headlands with a 750 but it often 'smooths' corners which makes it tricky. Also have to use the third width trick and drive round the second lap in.

We are on RTK. I think Farmworks costs around £750 but we got it as part of a FFIS grant when we bought the FMX. We also have autosteer ready tractors so use the NavII rather than easy pilot or easy steer. This may make a difference.