How do they do this?

josip

I've been curious about this for a couple of years since I first saw the aerial view. You can tell just by the fact that I'm asking the question means I'm not a farmer



How does the farmer get such a parallel, even distribution of tracks?
Is there GPS or some kind of computer program to minimise the amount of ground wasted to tracks?
If it is GPS/software, would it have been possible to get it this good using less modern methods?
Are the tracks "put in" at planting time and followed after that for spraying?
Or are they caused by the first spray?
It's such a nice precise job, I think I'd trust whoever did this to perform brain surgery on me.
Are there any other good examples worth looking at from around the country?

Say my name

Nowadays the tramlines (that's the word for the tracks for the sprayer) are set by isobus (that's the word for computer operated tractor and machinery with GPS involvement).
The sower doesn't sow the seed in those tracks, saving seed and leaving it visible for the sprayer driver when the crop grows.

I'm only a livestock farmer not in tillage so hopefully more posters will add to that.. :pac:

Victor

In other places, more on livestock farms than tillage, I have noticed 'navigation by electricity pole', whether on foot or by tractor. I imagine it is more common in larger fields where you can't necessarily see one end from the other.

patsy_mccabe

I navigate here using pigtails. Now, since you said you're not a farmer, pigtails are electric fence posts (not actual pig's tails). In recent years, due to failing eyesight and a dirty windscreen, I need a fertiliser or meal bag on the posts.

nilhg

At it's most basic there's no need for isobus or satellite or GPS to get tramlines in accurately. All modern drills have a control box which calculates the area sown and counts the bouts the sower is sowing. When you lift the sower to turn at each headland the scriber which marks where you have to drive next time is lifted and this clicks an electronic switch which tells the control box to change the bout number.

My drill is 3m wide, my sprayer is 21m so 7 bouts of the drill makes up one tramline, on run number 4 of the 7 (the first next the hedge is 1) the box switches on 4 solenoids which block 4 seed pipes, 2 each side where the wheels of the spraying tractor run.

You start next the hedge and once you drive on your scribe mark accurately everything will line up.

Or if you have the larest gear the tractor will do it all for you......