Farmers using GPS on tractors.

Did you ever read science fiction that shared a dream of a distant future when large farm machines would work the fields of earth without human drivers in them?
Well, there’s no need to read fiction about it anymore because your future time has arrived thanks to a wedding of computer technology with space technology. It’s called variously the Global Positioning System, the Global Positioning Satellite or the Global Positioning Satellite System, but most users here amongst the crop fields call it GPS.
Local farm machinery dealerships in Kansas say they have the tractors that enable farmers to turn around only at the end of crop rows, and allow the machines to guide themselves precisely back down the rows thus saving time and materials. They could even have tractors by now that guide themselves everywhere if society would allow it.
Randy Rice, customer support representative at Deere Trail Implement in Marion, explained that issues of legality and safety have to be resolved before a tractor without a driver operates on the farm. Who’s to be responsible if a tractor leaves its path to take off across the field, he asks? Apparently that’s a question for the future.
If you feel like the development of this system somehow passed by you while you had your head turned for just a moment, it’s no surprise. It’s relatively new. Rice said John Deere has been selling this “Auto Track” system on its equipment for perhaps five years and a universal kit to add to any age machine for perhaps one year.
According to various federal sources, GPS uses a system of 24 satellites that were first put into space for military use by the U.S. Department of Defense. The number of satellites can vary slightly because old ones come down, and new ones are put up. The system was released in the 1980’s for civilian use.
The system uses variations such as time and topography to come up with precise data and guidance. Agricultural scientists say it can give them data on tillage practices, chemicals used on farm fields, weed, insect and disease infestations, rain, yields, cultivation, and irrigation. Twenty four hours a day GPS is watching farm fields whether farmers use it or not.
Rice said use of GPS is “exciting” for farmers because it uses precision practices that save enough money for the system associated with the farm machinery to pay for itself over two or three years depending on acres farmed and individual situations.
For instance, he said, “A lot of guys strip till. They can use this system to put the fertilizer they need precisely at a four to six-inch depth, and come back to plant seed at exactly the same depth and place to maximize the amount of fertilizer available. There’s no putting fertilizer between the rows where the weeds use it.”
Dennis Burkhardt, spokesman for Straub Farm Equipment at Marion and Great Bend, said GPS guidance works so well that a farmer can put a person with less experience, for instance a high school student, in the tractor to make the turn-arounds because the precision and experience of a more skilled person isn’t needed.
Rice said, “It’s amazing. It’s all done with the tractor steering itself. The software is in the tractor. All you have to do after circling at the end of the row is hit the resume button.
“The operator can focus on the planter or the sprayer behind to make sure it’s operating correctly.”
Burkhardt said this attention to the towed implement results in great time improvement and utilization of ground. The operator can notice right away if a planter has become plugged with debris instead of being focused on the steering to leave a long portion of unplanted row behind, Burkhardt explained. The same is true if a sprayer nozzle becomes plugged to disrupt coverage.
Both Rice and Burkhardt said farmers are more relaxed with less tension at the end of a day riding in such a tractor. There’s not such intense focus on the row to tighten the body—less characteristic stiff neck.
Rice said he even has customers who carry a book along now sometimes reading several pages on a row. He imagines that benefit increases with the half-mile plus rows further west in Kansas. Add in the tractor’s air conditioning and stereo and the farmer’s comfort level has been greatly increased.
Burkhardt said, “A farmer can get home from a typical 12-hour feeling good.”
On the management side, Rice said the farmer can use the system for much improved field documentation including information on field mapping, soil, terrain, weather and rainfall, fertilizer, seed, pesticides, application timings, and yields. The farmer can use software to print out reports from this data or other professionals he works with such as in banking, crop insurance and government programs.
Burkhardt said the system “memorizes” fields. Say the farmer has a tree in a field that will be left there, the system steers the tractor around it year after year. It “knows” the ups, downs and curves of terrain.
Rice said the duplications of running over ground more than once when turning or to insure coverage are gone giving great savings in time and costs.
The only indication you are going to see outside of a tractor that it is equipped with GPS guidance is a relatively small dome-shaped receiver on its top. Both dealers said they can install the receiver and guidance in tractors that didn’t originally come equipped with it whether 10, 20 or 30 years old.
Rice was asked whether Deere could even put it on an elderly John Deere “B,” and acknowledged, with a smile, that he would enjoy the challenge if anyone really wanted to ride a B with it.
Burkhardt said Straub was installing GPS in an older tractor that would go back home to Burns.
They both said they could put the system in any make of tractor removing the steering to install it.
They both looked for wider applications in combines and other machinery.
Rice said GPS is finding other farm applications such as in irrigation where center pivot systems may be put together to cover more irregular wider sections of ground without duplication of coverage.
If a farmer wants to install a system, Rice said it’s difficult to give any system price quotes without the producer coming in to go over the situation on his own farm. He explained that the systems can be “custom-fitted,” and vary n expense by thousands of dollars according to needs.
Burkhardt said costs can vary according to precision desired. For instance, in one situation, a system allowed an 8 to 10-inch variance might cost $7,500 while if carried to a 1-inch allowed variance might cost $20,000.
Both men reiterated that given any scale of size, a system has a high liklihood of paying for itself in two years because of savings.
Burkhardt added, “But we’re not talking a big garden here. They have to do some serious size farming.”
Burkhardt said he forsees a future time when there’s a tractor with no cab, or perhaps a collapsible cab in case someone wants to drive it. The farmer will program in on his laptop what he wants the tractor to do, and it will go to the field, and do it, he said.