GPS isn't just for road trips anymore

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-07/asoa-gij062620.php


News Release 1-Jul-2020
American Society of Agronomy


When it comes to nifty farm gadgets and technology, there are many neat tools. Tractor guidance is definitely one of them, thanks to how it helps farmers better use their resources.

Tractor guidance allows farmers to be more precise when using a tractor to perform tasks in the field. These tasks include planting, spraying herbicide, and applying fertilizer.

•••••

Tractor guidance uses GPS to help reduce these overlaps and gaps. It also allows researchers to track and record tractor movements. The researchers helped improve an existing calculation to best measure these overlaps and gaps. It particularly helped where the tractor turns around at the end of a row.

The team's results suggest that tractor guidance reduces overlaps by up to 6% and gaps by up to 16%. Farmer's profits are made on small margins, so a small decrease in fertilizer costs, for example, can be very beneficial. Also, fertilizer that runs off a field can harm waterways, so being able to apply just the correct amount can benefit the environment.

While many large crop producers use tractor guidance, they only make up about one fifth of farms in the United States. The rest are small farms. These smaller farms are often slower to learn about and adapt to these new technologies.

All combined, increases in efficiencies with tractor guidance on small farms could result in saving U.S. producers more than $10 million.

The precision tool has other benefits, too, such as letting drivers operate in low light to get more work done during the evening.

•••••