Look, no hands. That’s what some farmers could say from the cab of their tractors after mastering a satellite-based steering system that promises to boost productivity and trim input costs during field operations.
It’s a “hands-free” automatic steering system that can be installed in tractors, combines and planters to increase the efficiency of field operations and lower costs for fuel, seed, fertilizer and other chemicals, said Steve Vrba, salesman with West Point Implement of Columbus on East 23rd Street.
Farmers who are utilizing the auto-steering system have had few problems after they’ve undergone some operations coaching, Vrba said. “They catch on to it pretty quickly.”
Rising fuel and other input costs the last couple of years have eaten away at the profitability of some farming operations despite high grain prices. The auto-steering system uses global positioning technology to navigate farm machines across fields with pinpoint accuracy, optimizing the number of rows per field and lowering costs.
“More farmers (are taking advantage of auto-steer) as it has become more affordable,’’ Vrba said. Farmers can slash input costs on every pass across a field by choosing the degree of accuracy for each operation, he said.
The system can be programmed for 2-inch to 4-inch accuracy, depending on the level of accuracy required for individual operations, to less than 1 inch. The automated steering can reduce or even eliminate overlaps and skips, allowing a producer to maximize crop inputs, labor, machinery and operator time.
The system, Vrba said, demonstrated its utility during last spring’s soggy weather. Frequents area rains in March, April and May made for sloppy field conditions, with farmers often squeezed for time to get their crops planted.
Field work can be completed just as effectively in low-visibility hours, relieving the operator of the need for constant steering adjustments, because of the precision of the system, Vrba said.
The Auto-Guide system installed on AGCO farm machines includes one permanent and two interchangeable elements, according to information from West Point Implement.
The first element is an Auto-Guide ready kit, fitted as a permanent part of the machine. The kit contains the vehicle interface unit, hydraulics, cabling and brackets.
The second element, TopDock, houses the geographic positioning system (GPS) antenna, steering controller/receiver and dynamic measuring unit. The final element is the in-cab terminal for monitoring and controlling the system.
Operators can easily transfer TopDock and the in-cab terminal to other system-ready farm machines, Vrba said. Producers install the steering system on tractors, combines and planters, he said.
The emergence of continuously variable transmissions on tractors in the last decade or so has helped farmers lessen the pain at the fuel pump. CVTs can compensate for changing vehicle speeds, allowing the engine speed to remain at its level of peak efficiency.
A CVT can change steplessly through an infinite number of gear ratios, which enables the engine to run at its most efficient revolutions per minute (RPM) for a range of machine speeds.
This transmission technology gives farm operators greater fuel economy, which is always welcome during times of climbing input costs, Vrba said.
Print This Story
Email This Story
