Between Omaha and Des Moines, 7 miles South of I80 | rebelblues - 2/18/2014 07:03 I am just now entering the precision farming. Know almost nothing except for what by salesman is telling me. I'm looking at the Ag Leader. I need to keep things as simple as possible.(Do you really think precision ag is going to be simple?) I'll be doing dry fertilizer application with a truck mounted spinner box. We have no till row chop mostly and lots of pasture. I will be doing custom application on small farms in northeast Mississippi.(You're going to have to learn quite a bit, and the added pressure of custom application, isn't going to help) A few of our bigger farmers are now using variable rate. The only features I really need are accurate application rates, variable rate and guidance.(Seems like a pretty big step, for someone who has never even tried anything with precision Ag , to this date) Which Ag Leader set up do I need.....Integra or Versa? My salesman is pushing for the Integra, but I feel it is way more than I need. Are there features you can unlock on Versa? I want something super simple to avoid long setup time from field to field. (My little discussions, with a custom sprayer employee, says that once a customer's field is in the computer(monitor) then it works pretty good. Remember, your first time into any field, is going to require a little more input/typing on the monitor) The dealer is almost two hours away so if problems come up, I will have little to no help except by phone.(Question: Is dealer going to setup everything and test it before you get all those systems, OR are you going to try and do installation, calibration, testing, etc???) High tech really scares the heck out of me. ( You have to be willing to slightly change your attitude, about this, somewhat. There are going to be pitfalls and screw-ups and confusion, for any first timer) And I can't afford to lose time. (Boy, this comment really makes you "sound" impatient ; I don't know if I would want to be on the other end of the telephone line, when you have a Precision Ag problem = this could get ugly) I'm know I'm way behind you guys, but any advice or help would be great. (These are just some things that can to my mind, when I read this last night). Read Italics print in ( ), inside of quote area I'm not picking on you; just reading a little in-between the lines. Background: I, myself, just started into precision ag, this Fall ( = Big time rookie) I knew my temperament, wasn't made to jump into a bunch of "unknown" stuff; so I'm taking baby steps. Only AL Leader Intregra and GPS 1600 (WAAS signal only=free signal) this Fall ( I performed broadcast dry fertilizer and mapped boundaries to my fields). I did my own installation, and set-up = so far, no phone calls have been necessary, to dealer, BUT this is only a very, very small step compared to your possible situation. Next step, maybe this Spring, will be Direct Command and liquid module, for spraying application. Then one year from now, maybe Guidance (Autosteer). I feel, for the guy, that is leery of high tech, AND jumps in with both feet. (In your case, you may not have any choice, such as being a Custom Applicator) As a Rookie, If I had one piece of advice to give; Assuming you are going GPS, this year, = this: Get your monitor and GPS globe, into some vehicle immediately(pickup, tractor, truck, utility vehicle) and start "playing" with it (follow booklet, somewhat) = programmed your measurements, practice entering field names, practice entering a dry fertilizer mix/s, practice entering an implement; Once you get enough stuff entered, then you could drive around a gravel road, or field and create a boundary or "pretend it is a field". Heck, if everything is muddy, drive around big, empty parking lot, on Sunday=pretend it is a field. The whole idea, it just get a little "play" time with some very, very basic operations, BEFORE the Application controller, gets installed and/or the autosteer gets installed. My thoughts, is that it would be a little less overwhelming, before those two additional items/features get added , that will complete your full blown system. |
Out of the dark ages!
