On a weedy patch of land an hour and half from Washington, D.C., farmer Brad Eustace is tilling razor-straight lines with a GPS-guided tractor.
The GPS computer receives signals from earth-orbiting satellites to keep track of where his tractor is and where it has gone. Hoses deliver precise amounts of fertilizer right into the grooves that the tiller cuts.
That process prepares the field for when farmer Jimmy Messick comes back days, or even weeks later, with a GPS-guided corn planter.
Placing seed and fertilizer together with centimeter precision means fewer loads of fertilizer go on the fields.
Messick has cut amounts of one fertilizer ingredient in half. On a 600-hectare farm, he says that saves him tens of thousands of dollars.
Messick also uses GPS when he sprays weed killer.
Before, he says, it was easier to miss spots or overlap. “You weren’t sure what had been done, and what hadn’t been done," he says. "With this system, you come back next week, next month, and you know what you sprayed and what you didn’t spray.”
GPS technology is guiding large-scale farm equipment across the country and some harvesters also monitor how much crop is produced in each part of a field.
Virginia Tech University farming expert Tim Mize says, “You get an idea of where the productive areas of the field are, where the less productive areas are, and you fertilize accordingly.” FG
—From Voice of America (Click here to read the full article.)
