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Alberta, Canada | Hi everyone,
I've been reading this site for awhile now and have been impressed with the wealth of information and advice that gets shared on here. I thought I'd try posting a bit of information about my family's operation and see what kind of suggestions for guidance equipment I get.
We currently farm 4500 acres in east central Alberta, growing wheat, canola, barley, and oats. My dad and our hired hand aren't real comfortable with computers and electronics in general and as a result have stayed away from guidance equipment. My brother and I are both currently university students and are starting to become more involved in the farm. With the two of us helping out more, we are looking to incorporate some guidance equipment into our operation.
For equipment, we currently run:
-a New Holland TJ 4WD with a 60' Flexi-coil air drill is our seeding unit. The tractor is having an Intelliview II plus display installed in it this spring to monitor the drill. The tractor is not auto-steer ready.
-a Massey Ferguson FWA tractor pulling a 120' Flexi-coil sprayer. This tractor will also have an Intelliview II plus display installed in it this spring to monitor the sprayer. The tractor also isn't auto-steer ready, and we probably wouldn't even consider adding it to this one as it has quite a few hours on it and we're looking to trade it off fairly soon.
-a Spra-Coupe 4000 series self-propelled sprayer. Last summer we purchased a Raver Cruizer and have been using it in this sprayer just as a lightbar.
-two New Holland CR9070 combines. Both machines have Intelliview II plus displays, but no gps or auto-steer roughed in. We currently just have pick up headers for the combines, but straight cuts will probably be coming in a year or two.
-two Massey Ferguson 9000 series swathers
We would like to start yield mapping with the combines and potentially set them up with auto-steer if we buy straight-cut headers. Since the hired hand (who doesn't like electronics) is who does almost all of the seeding, we probably won't be looking to auto-steer the TJ yet.
I'd be interested to hear some suggestions for different combinations of guidance equipment that could get us started (ideally components we could swap between machines). We definitely want to get a couple of GPS receivers so we can start yield mapping with the combines. The lower-end Trimble receiver (AgGPS 106 I think?) would work, but since we may be looking at auto-steering them it might make more sense to get a couple of 252/262's right off the bat. As for steering the FWA tractor pulling the sprayer, the combines, and maybe the swathers (can this be done?), would something like an EZGuide500/EZSteer be our best bet? Or is there some way to do it through the Intelliview II plus display that will already be in the tractor? Do you think WAAS will be sufficient or is it worth the upgrade to Omnistar? (I've seen the static-test numbers that were posted on here and they really seem to justify the subscription cost).
Thanks in advance for the help. | |
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Looking for suggestions
