Tramlines?? yes or no

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
DSC_1811.JPG

There's one of my tramlines
 

B'o'B

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Rutland
A2EECCE1-1C7C-4E7D-804B-EBA62498F451.jpeg


Here’s mine after 3 passes of liquid N. If I remember I’ll post some near harvest but there is nothing that different to when we put the tramlines in with the drill.
 

devonshire farmer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Devon
Google Earth is your friend here. How many farms do you look over the hedge and envy the skill of the drill driver? Just measure their tramline width from the comfort of your computer. It's amazing how many 24m tramlines are actually 23m or less...
We don’t use gps for drilling but we drill at 21m and sprayer is 20m just about bang on according to sprayer gps!
 

devonshire farmer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Devon
Is it worth bothering to put them in these days? been running RTK for 5 years now and still putting trams in but do I really need to

How many of you don't bother in wheat......do you harvest any crop from where the sprayer has run all year?
We tried drilling without tramlines and have gone back to it, too much green grain was pushing moisture up and our little sprayer doesn’t run much down on the narrow wheels as you know!
 
Today. This wheat has only had 1 nitrogen pass and 1 herbicide since it was planted so it’s still thick. By harvest it’s mostly gone.
 

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foxbox

Member
Location
West Northants
Obviously a hobby farmer like me. Not a businessman.

I was out spreading fertiliser yesterday and had time to play about (being a hobby farmer has it's advantages!) with our Eziguide 250. Was feeling quite smug after reading this thread as my own 24m tramlines were usually within 20 - 30cm on the flatter fields which I didn't think was too bad for a 4m drill.

Steeper cross slopes were a different matter; they were up to 1.2m shorter which I put down to the inaccuracies of the EGNOS signal and the rolling about of the receiver on the bonnet :rolleyes:. I haven't been out and proofed these with a tape yet but I will at some stage as I can't believe I was underlapping by 20cm per pass to compensate for the slope but anyway, the rather dull story continues.

We had some wheat drilled with a Weaving GD last year pulled by a friend running on RTK. Really annoyingly it appears my EGNOS theory is out the water as his tramlines were spot on 24m no matter what the field contours, it was rather impressive actually. My establishment is much better though so I'm keeping a petty win in the bag for now!

So, it appears I either need a new tractor, new guidance system, RTK stuff that I don't understand and probably some other new shiny things too or contract out the drilling to someone who's already got it. I think having my own kit is the eventual aim but only after Brexit and when it's clearer we're actually going to still be able to spray any actives onto crops. In the meantime I'm going to make my bout markers a bit longer and measure the slopes.
 

foxbox

Member
Location
West Northants
when drilling with RTK across slops it's amazing how far off the line i would normally of driven when drilling without

The weird thing is I'm running too tight however I'm pulling a 4m tine drill and can feel the crab effect when pulling up hill (virtually no crab effect going down so don't compensate for that) but I'm not stepping the compensation out further than the width of the tractor bonnet so I'd be amazed if I'd closed them up that much. A tape measure is the answer (y)
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Guidance and RTK don't normally go together. It doesn't matter how good the signal is, you can never get the accuracy that autosteer will provide.

Only a change in slopes will make you under or overlap. Across an even slope you'd hope the crabbing would be consistent.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Can see I’ll be the last person farming in the uk using tramlines and having no guidance whatsoever.people will look and stare at those things hanging of side of drill,called disc markers
Nick...

Last drill we bought saved £2800 not having markers

The one we have just bought marker arms are not even an option !
 

nick...

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
south norfolk
Ive noticed on several drill prices the markers are optional.rtk and gps will have to get a lot cheaper before I have it on my old tractors.i realise it’s the future but how much land do you need to justify it.
Nick...
 

Shutesy

Moderator
Arable Farmer
Ive noticed on several drill prices the markers are optional.rtk and gps will have to get a lot cheaper before I have it on my old tractors.i realise it’s the future but how much land do you need to justify it.
Nick...
I may have said this before but on your acreage drilling just standard arable crops I would say RTK level steering isn't justified, same as here. I would like RTK on our 450 acres but its just not really viable IMO. RTX Rangepoint however with steering fitted to the tractor and a CFX 750 screen for £5-£6k and £250/yr sub is very justifiable and does everything I need it to on an arable crop farm.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
I was out spreading fertiliser yesterday and had time to play about (being a hobby farmer has it's advantages!) with our Eziguide 250. Was feeling quite smug after reading this thread as my own 24m tramlines were usually within 20 - 30cm on the flatter fields which I didn't think was too bad for a 4m drill.

Steeper cross slopes were a different matter; they were up to 1.2m shorter which I put down to the inaccuracies of the EGNOS signal and the rolling about of the receiver on the bonnet :rolleyes:. I haven't been out and proofed these with a tape yet but I will at some stage as I can't believe I was underlapping by 20cm per pass to compensate for the slope but anyway, the rather dull story continues.

We had some wheat drilled with a Weaving GD last year pulled by a friend running on RTK. Really annoyingly it appears my EGNOS theory is out the water as his tramlines were spot on 24m no matter what the field contours, it was rather impressive actually. My establishment is much better though so I'm keeping a petty win in the bag for now!

So, it appears I either need a new tractor, new guidance system, RTK stuff that I don't understand and probably some other new shiny things too or contract out the drilling to someone who's already got it. I think having my own kit is the eventual aim but only after Brexit and when it's clearer we're actually going to still be able to spray any actives onto crops. In the meantime I'm going to make my bout markers a bit longer and measure the slopes.

Or - broadcast seed !! Tongue in cheek reply, to be disregarded!
 

Chae1

Member
Location
Aberdeenshire
I was out spreading fertiliser yesterday and had time to play about (being a hobby farmer has it's advantages!) with our Eziguide 250. Was feeling quite smug after reading this thread as my own 24m tramlines were usually within 20 - 30cm on the flatter fields which I didn't think was too bad for a 4m drill.

Steeper cross slopes were a different matter; they were up to 1.2m shorter which I put down to the inaccuracies of the EGNOS signal and the rolling about of the receiver on the bonnet :rolleyes:. I haven't been out and proofed these with a tape yet but I will at some stage as I can't believe I was underlapping by 20cm per pass to compensate for the slope but anyway, the rather dull story continues.

We had some wheat drilled with a Weaving GD last year pulled by a friend running on RTK. Really annoyingly it appears my EGNOS theory is out the water as his tramlines were spot on 24m no matter what the field contours, it was rather impressive actually. My establishment is much better though so I'm keeping a petty win in the bag for now!

So, it appears I either need a new tractor, new guidance system, RTK stuff that I don't understand and probably some other new shiny things too or contract out the drilling to someone who's already got it. I think having my own kit is the eventual aim but only after Brexit and when it's clearer we're actually going to still be able to spray any actives onto crops. In the meantime I'm going to make my bout markers a bit longer and measure the slopes.

Depends on operator! 1 chap i spray for has 1m overlap per 24m tramline, 3m drill.

Another with no autosteer is bang on 24m across a 74 acre field with some serious slopes!
 

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