Farming goes high tech and hands free

Farmers are saving money by using hands free steering in their tractors.

Across the nation tech-savvy farmers are taking their hands off the steering wheel and entrusting a computer to guide the tractor for them. This is the growers method of reducing the costs of farming to increase productivity in times of low prices and drought. The cost they are reducing is the cost of overlap and skipping. When working a field without hands free Steering Assist, the farmer relies on the tractor drivers eyesight and feel of the machine to ensure that all of the ground is worked and none is missed. As a result much ground is worked twice so that none is skipped.

Research by the various ag departments around the world show that overlap is usually at least 10% with some drivers recording overlap of up to 25%. What that means is that human error is adding at least an additional 10% more costs to the already tight margins of farming. Thats 10% more fuel, time and tractor hours used to plough the field. 10% more seed, chemical and fertilizer used to grow the crop. So if it costs a farmer $80 to grow one acre of wheat hes spending $8 more than he needs to. Over 1,000 acres thats $8,000 or a years repayments on a new farm truck or three semesters worth of college tuition for a child.

The perception of farming maybe a million miles from reality and a look inside a tractor cab proves it. Within a couple of square feet are more lights, dials and high tech gadgetry than a disco. Along with the pedals and levers for normal operation are buttons that will perform 15 pre-programmed operations, computers that change the application rates of chemical sprays and machines to change the gradient of the land. Hands free steering systems are the newest addition to this array and have the greatest potential to change the face of farming forever.

First to market with hands free steering for ag vehicles was Denver, CO based BEELINE Technologies, Inc. in 1998 with their aftermarket product the BEELINE Navigator RowCrop. BEELINE uses a blend of two technologies, GPS and INS along with advanced algorithms to accurately guide a tractor in a straight line. Navigator RowCrop offers GPS static accuracy of +/- 2 cm (sub-inch). This year in North Dakota, BEELINE launched the third generation in hands free Steering Assist the BEELINE Arro, a product with sub-meter accuracy but at much lower cost than Navigator. BEELINE says that Arro is an entry-level product whose accuracy is fully up gradable to sub-inch if the farmer requires it.

Major tractor companies are pushing the hands free trend and have brought factory-installed products to market. AGCO Corporation signed a deal with BEELINE Technologies, Inc. for OEM hands free steering products for their entire range of ag vehicles including Challenger, Fendt, and Massey Ferguson. AGCOs factory fit branded product Auto-Guide was offered this year for the Challenger MT series tractors. John Deere developed their own hands free steering option, Auto-Trac for their tracked machines.

Why would a farmer want to drive hands free? Ask Scott Schmidt, a Californian farm manager. Overlap at Farming D when using their narrowest implement -- a chisel, was anywhere between 30 and 45%. Schmidt didnt have to calculate the ROI to help him make his buying decision.

When we were discing without the BEELINE we were getting about 8.5 acres per hour. With the BEELINE were getting 12 acres an hour."

For Schmidt the move to hands free steering showed a productivity increase of 42% and his work records for ripping show an even greater improvement at 53%.

Not too far away at Woolf Enterprises, VP of Farming Operations, Rick Blankenship is seeing similar results.

In the same 12 hour shift we are covering 20% more ground. Before BEELINE we ran two listers on two 14-hour shifts and covered about 120 acres per shift. Now with the BEELINE we can cover about 275 acres in a 24 hour period with one tractor."

For Blankenship hands free steering has meant paring down input costs, increasing productivity, optimizing equipment utilization and maximizing farmable acres.

The gains from hands free steering arent limited to California. Quincy Farm Chemicals is located in the Quincy Valley in Washington State. QFC run a custom application business -- they apply fertilizer and spray for farmers on a contract basis and have installed BEELINE in all their Terra-Gators. Pete Romano, owner of QFC and President of the Agricultural Retailers Association said uptake of the technology from his customers point of view was nearly 100%.

The customers definitely want it if theres a choice. Earlier this spring we were running our fourth machine in our big push and we boxed ourselves into a corner because growers wanted a BEELINE and the fourth machine didnt have it. Theres been excellent reception in the grower community. Its due to the quality of the spreading jobs that we can do with the BEELINE; its far superior than anything we can do without it.

We do a multitude of crops. Growers spend anywhere from $40 per acre up to $200 an acre per application. For things like potato mixes where youre putting on heavy fertilizer rates, theres no doubt that you want accurate spreading."

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