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Coles County, Illinois | I have my first season under my belt with Raven's version of this system. I just ran WAAS as I don't need RTK performance and their version of RTX wasn't ready for primetime. (Should be for next year.) I've had a guidance system (no autosteer) for some time and I agree with Canucker about not adding everything at once. In fact I'd recommend learning auto-steer with a tillage operation or at least making a few passes with the planter without seed.
As far as being satisfied, I don't think precision ag and satisfaction can co-exist. As you get each part working you start thinking of ways to make other operations better. Each improvement leads to a desire to tackle the next "problem".
I do feel that I did a better job planting even using WAAS. I plant 8 rows and harvest 6 so I literally have 1/2 of my bulk rows right in front of me while harvesting. I never had to back up and take two rows. Planting with Auto-steer on WAAS just kinda changes how you operate the tractor. Instead of a hand-eye coordination skill it becomes an error correction operation. I would equate it to gear shifting a tractor doing heavy tillage. You'll need to monitor an input (marker) and make decisions on whether to correct (nudge). Unlike manual steering, you can spend time looking at the planter, checking the weather on a mobile device, stretching or just relaxing for a minute. For next year, I'd like to spend less time monitoring/correcting and more time on these other things. I'll upgrade accuracy. | |
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Realistic Expectations/New to auto steer
