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Farming with GPS

By: Robert Thomson

Ever since I have been able to use Garmin GPS I can now grow crops more effectively than before. You might wonder to yourself “How can some Podunk farmer grow better with GPS?” Well, first of all, we’re not all like that, and secondly the trick is how you manage it on your land. With my Garmin GPS mapping and my tractors and planters using it I can fit more crop onto one field than ever before, by making precision decision, as I say. First of all let’s say you have yourself a nice mapped out chunk of land that is the shape of a square, and it is a total of 10 acres of land. Well, the old way was planting by eye, or trying to drive in a straight line for reference lines and then doing it. Of course there was nothing really wrong with that, but small deviations created what could only be described as the butterfly effect.

In basic terms it means small actions at the beginning could lead to large results at the end. If one of the workers I hire goes off and changes less than a degree in the angle of the crop line, it doesn’t seem like much – but down the line it could equal to a whole line of crop being abandoned because it can’t be fit into the parcel of land. Furthermore I can now map out the land easier, quicker, and make the rows just barely an inch tighter, and fit in an extra row of, oh, let’s say corn. By mapping it out using accurate maps, and Garmin GPS I can make sure that my crops will grow correctly and the way I want.

That also means that in my farm trucks, like the big one Jose uses, he can take it down the field and use the big seeder in an absolute straight line after making perfect reference lines with the truck. Additionally to that, Jose can also drive the seeder using a handheld Garmin GPS fitted to the dashboard, and know if he’s going straight enough or not. The entire GPS has allowed me to marginally increase my production, which means I increase my profit, and by doing that keep my farming as profitable as possible, in spite of these times.

I know I may not have a big farm, or a large workforce, but by being able to map out my land and then plot out crops and use land that was previously wasted I am able to take full advantage of the Garmin GPS to make sure I put food on the plates of people who buy my corn and other crops. I can also use those spaces between the land that were previously unused because of poor planning to grow smaller crops, such as tomatoes; in some areas I also plan to put in a few pumpkins too. With those crops I’ll be able to sell just a little bit more and that makes a big difference down the line. Like I said, the butterfly effect, it’s responsible for variations costing me money, but also variations that can make me money too. By saving what is insignificant as an inch, it grants me a foot every twelve rows, and after three sets of twelve, that is three extra feet of growing room – something I could have never done without the Garmin GPS.

Article Source: http://www.essentialgardenguide.com/gardening-articles

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