In Challenging Crop Seasons, Guidance Systems a Bedrock

Throughout the years-long commodity price slump and the adversity of the pandemic, guidance systems for agriculture have remained resilient. The cost is reasonable. The payback is high.

“Our services are in the neighborhood of a few hundred to a thousand dollars a year. Even in uncertain economic times, the farmer knows he still needs accuracy, and this is still the easiest way to get it. It’s a reasonable check to pay every year,” says Michael Bruno, Channel Program Manager with Trimble.

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For retailers, the reliable income stream and increased customer interactions integral to the subscription services model offer at least some counterbalance to the many ups and downs of the commodities market.

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Trimble’s NAV-900 guidance controller, its most advanced GNSS receiver to date. Photo Courtesy: Trimble

Trimble’s NAV-900 guidance controller, its most advanced GNSS receiver to date. Photo Courtesy: Trimble

Trimble has zeroed in on delivering sharper accuracy in a turnkey, self-contained solution that is easier for the retailer to support. “We are moving a lot of the concerns and moving parts that the retailer would have with an RTK base station into our realm, so the retailer is more responsible for getting the service out there,” Bruno says of Trimble’s VRS Now and CenterPoint RTX services, its technology providing instant access to Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) without the need for a base station. “You don’t have questions around, ‘my cell phone plan expired, or I can’t get radio to connect, or my base station got hit by lightning.’ It’s clean for the retailer.”

Trimble has made available an ROI calculator to determine your savings. A product like VRS Now or CenterPoint RTX provide accuracy at levels around 1 inch, helping applicators avoid crop damage from overspraying or underspraying or missing applications — “inefficiencies that really end up adding up, either impacting your yield or increasing your costs,” Bruno says.

Topcon’s AGS-2 receiver and steering controller, with 226 universal tracking channels of GNSS. Photo Courtesy: Topcon

“You’ll continue to see that trend of shaving time you spend waiting for a signal in the field down, so the vehicle can maintain accuracy in more conditions,” he says. “If you ask me in a few years what we are trying to do, (farmers) want to have zero error instantly,” he adds, laughing. “We will continue working towards that goal … That’s our group’s big drive.”

For the end user, there is no time for downtime or failure, particularly with the rising cost of inputs.

“A GPS error or blip can wreak havoc with these machines that are increasingly becoming more complex and sophisticated,” Brian Sorbe, Topcon Positioning Agriculture Vice President and General Manager, Americas, said on a press call discussing the company’s new AGS-2 receiver and steering controller, which features 226 universal tracking channels of GNSS.

“In the past, when Topcon led the market by incorporating GPS and GLONASS, farmers were getting used to seeing 14 or 15 satellites in the sky at one time and everybody was blown away by the accuracy and performance,” Sorbe said. “Those days are behind us already. Get ready for 20-plus satellites in the sky at all times. What that means is, you’re less likely to have dropouts of GPS, and maybe even more importantly, the algorithm that calculates positioning has many more satellite signals to choose from in order to make a more refined positioning calculation.”

Also new from Topcon is AGM-1, its standalone, more economical GNSS receiver, aimed at simple manual guidance applications.

“Many people get a little hung up on (corrections services) as being some type of subscription. That’s the world we live in today,” Sorbe acknowledged, noting that growers who prefer full ownership models also have options.

Autonomous Benefits

Last year was Raven’s first commercial season for its VSN Visual Guidance system, a machine-mounted camera that identifies patterns in crop rows, feeding guidance into its RS1 or SC1 steering system, allowing the machine to automatically steer down crop rows ranging from 15 to 40 inches. Terrain compensation is built into the system, enabling it to work on up to an 8% slope.

“With the VSN demos (last season) it was kind of a way to forget about COVID, because you got to see it in action and see the applicator’s face when the machine was driving itself down rows, and seeing the applicators being more productive, gaining ground speed, and covering more acres in the post season, which are some of the most grueling operations for the applicator,” says Josh Crimmins, Raven Account Manager.

In 2021, Crimmins says, “we’re seeing a large take rate on new machine sales.” The key selling points: increased speeds of 4 mph with less operator fatigue. “With a 120-ft. boom, at 4 more mph, that adds another 58 acres an hour. That’s dollars and sense right there.” In addition, a tired applicator who runs over corn when it’s worth $6.60 a bushel quickly adds up, he notes.

“I’ve worked with a lot of applicators running the system. The big thing at the end of the day is employee retention and keeping those good applicators. More experienced applicators are uber-focused on driving the machine down rows — they’re tensed up. At the end of the day, your shoulder hurts, your neck is sore. VSN allows that applicator to feel a lot better at the end of the day. For new applicators, it allows them to relax and not to potentially run stuff over,” he adds. “(VSN) allows them to focus on the task at hand, which is crop care. You’re doing a good job of getting a good kill on the target — the weeds that are in the field.”

In May, Raven also launched the rebranded OMNiDRIVE, replacing the AutoCart name from its 2019 acquisition of acquisition of Smart Ag. (All of Raven’s autonomous solutions for the agriculture industry will be branded with the OMNi prefix.) The company touts the aftermarket kit as the first farming application that allows the farmer to monitor and operate a driverless tractor from the cab of the harvester so the harvester can offload on-the-go, then return the tractor and grain cart to a predetermined unloading area — all without a second driver.

“OMNi enables holistic, hands-free precision; it gives the farmer total control of their time and maximizes operational productivity and efficiency,” says Nick Langerock, Director of Strategic Marketing for Raven. “As we bring OMNi to market, we want farmers to understand that some of their pain points are now more manageable through autonomous solutions. OMNi solutions allow the farmer to trust the routine tasks to automation and focus on the important farm functions.”

Raven is continuing to look towards improvements, including putting VSN on tractors for row crop applications, as well as beta testing VSN with automatic end-land turning this year.

“It’s been a really good year,” with strong demand despite persistent pandemic-related challenges in obtaining raw product. “Everybody’s seeing longer lead times. We’ve hired a lot of people to meet the demand, and what our people have been able to do with the circumstances we’re all in has been amazing.”

In April, Trimble and HORSCH unveiled a collaboration focused on developing solutions that enable autonomy in agriculture with the goal of building a future for autonomous machines and workflows in the industry. The collaboration extends beyond autonomously controlling machines to full workflow automation from the office to the field. The first phase will bring automation to sprayers to improve machine performance and reduce operating errors, significantly reducing the driver’s workload, while still allowing them to intervene at any time.

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