Middlesex County, Ontario | You're going to need to decide what level of accuracy you want.
At the low end is 6" pass to pass accuracy. The signal will drift up to ~6" every 20 minutes. If you stop to refill the planter, better to drop a marker on that last pass before because you will be shifting the line. You will not be able to use autosteer to follow your planted row crops unless you shift constantly. You can achieve this for $2500 for a used Trimble 500 ez steer system at any auction. There are no subscription costs. The installation is straight forward. You'll have a big finger pinching motor hanging off the steering column.
At the high end is 2" accuracy, repeatable any time. You can autosteer plant and come back anytime and autosteer between the rows. Its better with a hydraulic valve, but an electronic steering wheel solution works. You'd be around $10k for a used system and you'd need a ~$600/year subscription to a base station, your own base station, or access to a free state CORS network. Trimble, AgLeader, Raven, Deere, Topcon, there are several popular and well recognized brands.
New to market are Chinese systems like FJ Dynamics, CHC Nav, Wheelman, and others. These systems have some Chinese stigma, but appear to work very well and are inexpensive. Who knows how long the company will be around for, but the value is certainly there right now.
On the DIY side there are systems like AgOpenGPS which can be built for as little as $1500 and have RTK and many other great features. They take time to build, and time isn't free, but the total parts cost is low and the value is very high. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0PrhWc09vCQ |
auto steer and gps in JD 7800
