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South Georgia | Background:
Last year, I Got set up to variable rate plant, using FieldIQ and my FMX. It worked well. I only wanted to base my prescriptions based on where the irrigation ends, just two populations. No problem. The woman I had make my maps has been in precision agriculture for a long while and makes fertilizer prescriptions for growers and sends them to commercial applicators all the time. I trust that she knows what she's doing, and I seldom ask a question that she can't answer.
I also started variable applying Telone with my strip till rig, which is all one unit with the planters. (Common here in the south.) I was unable to get it all hooked up to run through FieldIQ last year for various reasons. I had been using a MicroTrak SprayMate Plus to apply Telone, and so last year I just used a VR unlocked EZ500 to send the prescriptions to it using serial rate control. Obviously this worked fine, but was not a desirable or elegant solution. This year, I am running both seed and Telone through FieldIQ.
I planted my corn using prescription maps, and I did not apply Telone on the corn. I loaded the seed prescription maps into the FMX, loaded them into location 1 (seed) when I opened the field, completely disregarded location 2 (Telone), and everything worked exactly as I expected.
Yesterday, we began variable applying Telone ahead of planting peanuts. We're not planting anything, just using the same outfit to apply Telone. Here's where the problem began. We selected location 2 (Telone) from the drop down box, clicked the desired prescription, chose our rate column, set the correct scale factor, etc, opened the field, and our prescription wanted to apply 0.32 GPA. The rate we wanted was 3 GPA. Okay, I assumed the person making the maps mixed a decimal. I exited the field, reloaded everything again the same way, except I multiplied the scale factor by 10. When we opened the field, the prescription rates were the same. The low rate was still 0.32 GPA. That I really don't get.
I loaded the field with no prescription so the machine could be running while I did some research, talked to a few folks on the phone, and got no answers. I went back to the field to fiddle with it again, and tried a few different things. What ended up getting g my Telone to work correctly was to load it into location 1 also. I wasn't using location 1, so I disregarded it, just the same as I had disregarded location 2 when I wasn't using it. Location 1 is switched off in it's box on the run screen.
When I'm applying Telone while planting cotton ,how will I go about this? They have to be on the same map? I actually don't intend to variable rate cotton. At least not yet as I'm not sure how or if VR cotton would gain anything. I thought that when p!anting cotton, I could load my Telone prescription into location 2, and no prescription into location 1, and achieve my desired results. I also thought that if I did need to VR both products at the same time, I could load my Telone map into location 2, and my seed map into location 1. I based this assumption on the fact that my cartographer (that is, my map maker) says that when she sends fertilizer prescriptions, she always sends the prescriptions on different maps to help avoid confusion. Yes, even when they are going to be spread simultaneously using a multi-product bin. Most or all of those in this area would be using Raven computers, not Trimble though.
Y'all explain to me what I need to understand to make all this junk work together, and make it actually work instead of sitting idle while I fiddle with it trying to figure out what's wrong this time...
Thanks for any suggestions, they're much appreciated. Also forgive any misspellings as I'm typing this on my tablet, and it's acting kinda wonky today.
Adrian | |
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FMX/FieldIQ prescription problems?
