If you are running an agriculture business like us, you must have heard about precision farming and GNSS technology thousands of times. GPS guidance systems for farm tractors applying GNSS technology have become increasingly crucial in modern agriculture. Its precise positioning technology helps farmers to optimize agriculture procedures and increase farm profits. This article will introduce the role of GNSS in precision agriculture and how it can reduce costs for your farm while significantly increasing operation efficiency at the same time.
What is GNSS?
The full name of GNSS is Global Navigation Satellite System, and it is a general term for all satellite navigation systems, including GPS(North America), GLONASS(Russian), Beidou(China), Galileo(Europe) and any other constellation system. It can provide signals from space to a constellation of satellites, which transmits positioning and timing data to a GNSS receiver, which in turn uses the data to determine its position.
What is GPS？
GPS refers to the Global Positioning System of North America. GPS is one of the satellite positioning systems in GNSS.
The five main users of GPS.
1. Location - confirming the correct position.
2. Navigation-guiding from one location to another.
3. Tracking - monitoring the movement of objects or individuals.
4. Mapping - creating maps
5. Time - measuring the exact time
How Does GNSS Work?
Components of GNSS in agriculture include satellites, ground stations, and receivers. Satellites are like stars in the sky, which constantly send signals to the ground to tell receivers where they are. Ground stations use radar to confirm whether the satellite is in line with the predicted position. Receivers were mounted on machinery. It continuously searches for signals from satellites to figure out the precise position of the machinery and guide it to go on the right track.
Therefore, GNSS technology is usually applied to the auto steer navigation system in precision agriculture to improve operation accuracy.
The Use of GNSS in Agriculture
What is GNSS farming? It refers to GNSS systems in precision farming applications, which show the conditions of farmlands and identify targeted areas in crops with GNSS technology to improve land production.
“The accuracy of GPS allows farmers to create farm maps with precise acreage for field areas, road locations, and distances between points of interest. GPS allows farmers to accurately navigate to specific locations in the field, year after year, to collect soil samples or monitor crop conditions.” - Source from the website GPS.GOV
GNSS technology is widely used in precision agriculture. The following are some common applications.
Field planning: GNSS technology can collect field information, which is convenient for farmers to make future plans because it is hard to collect accurate field data simply with human eyes.
Yield mapping: Using GNSS, farmers can predict planting results in each area based on the seed and land information collected. GNSS technology helps farmers make more scientific forecasts of crop yields and create better plans for different fields.
Fertilization: Agricultural devices with GNSS systems can irrigate and spray fertilizer more accurately in the field, which maximizes fertilizer utilization and saves fuel.
GNSS system on tractor guidance: Tractors equipped with GNSS systems can run automatically and maintain high-precision operation for a long time. It can also effectively avoid skips and overlaps caused by manual operation, which improves work efficiency greatly.
As mentioned above, the use of GNSS in agriculture greatly boosts the tractor's operation efficiency and reduces skips and overlaps, bringing higher returns to farmers.
Why Do Tractors Have GNSS in Precision Farming?
The GNSS guidance systems for farm tractors play a key role in controlling the cost and increasing the yield of farmlands.
Take the Sveaverken F100 Auto Steer System for example.
Firstly, as the GNSS guidance systems for tractors for sale in our online store have shown, the systems enable the tractor to maintain a high accuracy of 2.5cm during operations. No matter whether it’s during the day or at night, or in the rain or haze, the tractor can work well. Weather won't affect the tractor’s operation in the field.
Secondly, the tractor GNSS guidance system can greatly reduce farmers’ pressure. They don’t need to be always in the field because GNSS will ensure that the tractor runs straightly by itself. If you adopt higher technology with U-turn, your tractors can even turn around at the headland by themselves. Therefore, tractor drivers will be able to save their time and energy to prepare for the next season, or they can simply enjoy quality family time. It is also conducive to the management and production of the farm.
Are these the only advantages of GNSS farming? Of course not. The followings are some more advantages of GNSS on tractors precision farming.
5 Advantages of GNSS in Precision Agriculture
Let’s still take the tractor GNSS system Sveaverken F100 Auto Steer System (*Hereafter referred to as Sveaverken F100) as an example. There are many factors that are difficult to control in production, such as weather changes, lack of skilled drivers, increase in fertilizer price, etc. But don’t be upset--precision farming auto steer systems like Sveaverken F100 are ready to help：
1. Save More Time
Managing large farmland is quite time-consuming, but a tractor GNSS system can make it much easier. It will save your cultivation routes in the history operation so the next time you can load the history route information directly without re-planning. Besides, manual labor is more susceptible to weather conditions, while Sveaverken F100 won’t be affected by the weather. Even at night or in low visibility conditions, it won’t stop without your orders. This makes Sveaverken F100 a great helper in the time-pressing seasons like harvest seasons and spring plowing seasons. With the same amount of time, it can finish work beyond your expectation.
2. Save More Money
Imagine this situation:
During the harvesting season, tons of farm work is waiting to be finished, but it’s very difficult for you to find a skillful tractor driver in the busy season. You have no choice but to raise the hourly rate. What will happen if you have the Sveaverken F100 as your helper? You don’t need a driver with years of experience. Tractors equipped with Sveaverken F100 will ensure accuracy and shorten operation days. Does high labor cost? Not a thing.
Since the Sveaverken F100 can automatically plan the routes with 2.5cm high accuracy before operating, the tractor can work more accurately and efficiently. There will be less waste on fertilizer and fuel. No more extra payments for wasted fertilizers and labor. Every penny will be well spent.
3. Reduce Driver Fatigue
Driving a tractor for a long time can easily make the driver tired and his/her attention will decline inevitably, which may lead to severe consequences. The Sveaverken F100 allows drivers to truly free their hands and reduce their workload, so they can focus on other more important tasks. They can now finish more work safely in a day and gain a higher sense of accomplishment. Easier life, happier work.
4. Optimize Farm Operation
With Sveaverken F100, comprehensive field management becomes easy-peasy. Based on detailed data, they can make decisions more scientifically and plan early for the next season. They can also learn about the growth situation and the problems of the crops to optimize their plans to increase yields. All of these will bring huge benefits to farm operations.
5. Extend the Service Life of the Machine
The Sveaverken F100 can plan the cultivation routes automatically and optimize them during operation. It also enables the tractor to auto-drive strictly in accordance with the guidance line while maintaining 2.5cm high accuracy, so the farm work can be done perfectly at one time. No more repetition due to skips and overlaps now. Therefore, the tractors’ work efficiency has improved while the working hours and fuel consumption have been considerably reduced. The tractor can be in service for longer.
Conclusion
Auto steer system with GNSS technology for precision agriculture is like the brain of humans. It is critical to the development of agriculture. As the global population grows, using GNSS technology to boost yields will become more and more urgent.
In terms of agriculture, it can effectively improve farm management and increase land production and profits in the short term. In the long term, the popularization of GNSS technology can significantly accelerate the process of precision agriculture and push forward the transformation of modern agricultural production mode. It can also optimize agricultural products controlling and improving farmers’ lives and the comprehensive level of national agriculture. In terms of the environment, scientific agriculture management contributes to sustainable development, thereby protecting the environment that we live in day by day.
So, let’s seize the opportunity to make good use of GNSS technology. Sveaverken has been devoted to bringing innovations to the lives of farmers in a more eco-friendly and sustainable way. Let the Sveaverken F100 ease your life and push forward precision agriculture!
