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Texas | My GPS toys have made me a saved me a lot of money and made me a lot of money. Each individual operation has its own methods and some like mine have benefitted greatly from the technology. I now currently own a greenstar 2 system(autotrac, 3rd party rate controller, swath control, and circle trac) a handheld gps unit, microsoft streets and trips, and three zimmatic pivots with gps positioning and computerized contol systems. These systems are all very useful and have saved me money through more accurate chemical and fertilzer placement, irrigation efficiency, less fuel, less labor and time savings for me. These systems have also made me money through increased yields and more uniform crops and grades.
I farm mostly cotton in West Texas. I no till and use my GS2600 to plant my cotton under pivots in circle rows. With a pivot I have a mark every 48 rows that I went by in the past. I had markers on my planters and still had wide and narrow middles between the pivot tracks. With the autosteer my rows are perfect from tower to tower. My LEPA heads on my pivot run directly between the rows instead of on top of one row or closer to one row or another.
The GPS systems on my pivots are used on pivots that do not make a full circle. I can put a plan in place with these pivots that allows the crops to be watered at precise times. Before the GPS system and computerized panels that was difficult to do. Sure they would be watered but not as effeciently as possible. The field net system allows me to only have to check a pivot once a day instead of twice a day. (a little gas savings there) After all I would have to drive to 12 different systems twice a day.
Finally, I had chemical savings from 2007 to 2008 of 5 percent to date. That is due to the autotrac and swath control. I have am 80 ft boom on a pull type sprayer. 5 percent may not seem like much but for me it is at least 5000 dollars. Most of these new sprayers are very precise.
Finally, using my gps handheld and or software, I can tell a consultant where I think I may have a problem, I can give an exact location to the utility companies about a problem such as a gas leak or bad underground, or hell I even tell the vet where a cow is that is having a problem.
The list is endless and as tech gets better that list will get even longer. | |
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Product Savings Revisited
