Budget guidance helps small farmers get accurate

摘要

Tractor guidance systems are not just the domain of large arable farms - there are also systems designed to meet the requirements of smaller livestock and mixed farms, but at a lower cost. Think tractor guidance and, for most, there will be visions oflarge tractors pulling wide cultivators in arrow-straight lines across prairie-size fields. While this is clearly the popular image projected by manufacturers of such guidance equipment, the situation is changing rapidly as an increasing number of smaller scale growers and livestock farms look to adopt such systems. Prompting the move is the realisation that better use of expensive fertiliser and pesticides comes from accurate driving; there are manufacturers of guidance systems which believe costs canbe reduced by as much 8% even with the most basic systems, while the more advanced and expensive autosteer could save up to 10%. But having said that, justifying the high cost of autosteer, RTK and all the other peripheral costs of full automated tractor guidance can still be difficult on smaller farms.