01/06/09 Saving with a tractor guidance system

Washington Ag January 6, 2009 Why would you want a system that can steer your tractor for you in the field? After all you can drive straight lines right? But maybe not as efficiently or cost effectively as you think. It's a matter of precision farming. At a grower convention recently, Jim Baergen with Evergreen Implement in Coulee City talked about the savings from using a system like John Deere's AutoTrac. He cited some examples during an interview, like a grower who used to take 187 acres of product to spray a 160 acre field. Baergen: "This year with the rate controller and the new AutoTrac system he took 164 acres to spray the whole field. So he saved 23 acres of product. Another guy used to go out at 6:30 in the morning, get done at 6:30 at night; now he is getting done at 2:30 in the afternoon on the same field, same size of equipment." Baergen says it all adds up to big savings in fuel, seed, fertilizer and crop protection chemicals. He says farmers who are skeptical quickly change their minds. Baergen: "Those same guys, once you get them into it, after they drive it a bit, quickly look and wonder how they lived without. Why didn't they do this a couple of years ago." Baergen says some conservation programs may help pay for the cost of a guidance system. I'm Bob Hoff.