6 11 2014 GPS Autosteer Planter Narrative Report Stuart Olson Farms, Inc. Project Summary: This Special Project consisted of installing a Trimble autopilot GPS systems on a small tractor with a pull behind planter. The small tractor allows us to plant close row spacings. To our knowledge, this is the smallest tractor application in the U.S. for this precision agriculture technology. With the new system we use half the fuel when planting new orchards. We plant nearly 20,000 trees annually, so reduced passes adds up to a significant savings. No other tractors in Oregon have this combo of equipment. Other tractors would have to make multiple passes to mark out the field than drive again to plant trees. We are now able to do planting and field lay out in one pass. Location and Layout: Stuart Olson Farms, Inc. has close to 200 acres in orchards and fruit crops, producing ornamental holly, cherries, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples, and nectarines, which are available in season at a commercial fruit stand. http://www.olsonfarms.com/. The tractor/ planter with the GPS Autosteer system is be mobile by trailer. Product Design/Description: The Trimble GPS system that we purchased has some very unique features that to the best of our knowledge no other brand of GPS system has. The FMX GPS by Trimble can track the tractor driving North to South and tell the tree planter when to plant the trees going East to West with the Trimble systems and RTK (Real Time Kinematic, RTK is also sub inch). By being able to track North to South and East to West it will allow us to plant and map in one pass unlike other GPS units. With other GPS units the tractor may drive straight lines, but the tree spacing is at random spacing making the trees very hard to work around as they grow. All other GPS units on the market can only mark rows in one direction. For planting, a cross hatch has to be made than planting at the intersection by machine or hand dubbing fuel use. Tractors without GPS are not able to be used for layout. We can also export the GPS files and send to the irrigation designer eliminating the numbers of trips to the field site. Link to Trimble FMX GPS system http://www.trimble.com/agriculture/fmx-display.aspx Expected / Observed Conservation Benefits: Fewer passes means more efficiency, less management time, and less traffic in wheel lanes. Fewer passes saves fuel and has the added benefit of cutting down on soil compaction. The GPS will also allow us to map our fields to apply variable rate fertilizer based on crop needs and soils. We have significantly improved our nutrient management and are using less commercial fertilizer and lime then even we expected before using this system. We have also reduced surface water runoff to help slow soil erosion. Because the GPS unit logs elevation, we utilize this feature when laying out new fields, working with the contours or grading when needed to control water flow. By directing runoff to the nearest infiltration areas we can avoid concentrated flows in high gradient areas. Stuart Olson Farms Autosteer GPS Planter Special Projects Grant Narrative Report 1 Outreach: By allowing a highlighting of this technology in our SWCD newsletter/ website, we hope to provide other area farmers with some insight into what may be possible with this technology, such as cost savings, soil conservation, reduced chemical use, etc. and encourage the adoption application of this technology for the benefit of local soil and water resource conditions. Project update 2014: Early outcome of project- we did have a few small problems, due to the fact that this is a first application of its kind in the area or the country. The hardware was all custom and it a bit of time to get all the settings right. We did get the hardware working and the Autosteer, than had to understand the FMX gps unit. The planting function is built into the GPS, but are not used often. The support staff at Trimble had a hard time helping us use the tree planting function of the FMX. I will say we have gotten to know many staff members at Trimble to work out the issues we were having. We overcame the problems with better than expected results. In field setup we now only make two lines, one at the starting point and another line at the ending point. From there we can plant trees rows on preset row spacing and tree spacing. Our fields line up on every angle. This is a huge fuel savings, other GPS lay outs would involve making a criss cross pattern, then planting the trees where the lines meet. After the tractor was done laying out the field, other tractors would have to haul the trees to lay out at each cross. In this new system, I can haul all the trees on the planter and can plant going from each end. I have about a 75% savings in fuel compared to other planting techniques. When everything was going well, I was able to plant 75 two year old trees (bare root or potted) in 2.06 mins. With just 3 people I was able to plant 4,000 trees in one day. Also, another added benefit is that we are finding that the trees have a much higher survival rate; with our tree planter we are gaining about a year of tree growth. We don’t have enough data to say this for sure, but the early results look promising. The GPS data has also been used to lay out the irrigation systems, saving cost and time of the irrigation designers driving out to a location. We have also found that we are able to save on ground prep costs. We no longer spread pre-plant on the whole field we just back the pre-plant in a 3 foot wide area where the trees are going to be planted. Using a banding system with a 6’ wide swath of application on 20’ runs, we saved about 90% of the cost to treat the entire field. For example, a 46 acre field became a 5.5 acre field. At an estimated $400/ ac cost in fertilizers, we saved over $15,000 just on this one field. In 2014, we planted over 100 acres. In all, the system has had large savings and surpassed its estimated goals. Thank you Marion SWCD Board Members for funding this project. Stuart Olson Farms Autosteer GPS Planter Special Projects Grant Narrative Report 2 GPS Autosteer Planter Photos 4 5 Stuart Olson Farms Autosteer Planter Special Projects Grant Stuart Olson Farms Autosteer Planter Special Projects Grant
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