Using GPS-RTK for Seeding and Planting Crop Performance Evaluation Plots.

When planting row crop variety trials the farmer/cooperator often blank plants the field so that the producer’s rows match the plot rows for pesticide application, cultivation, ditching, irrigation, fertilization, and any other operations performed in the fields. This means that we often have to wait for the producer to plant in the field. Blank-planting dries out the soil and can plant weed seeds, especially if a physical marker is used. If precipitation occurs before the plot is seeded, it becomes difficult to determine where the blank planted rows are. With small grains in narrow row spacing the objective is usually to seed the plots before the producers seeds the rest of the field, which requires a lot of flagging, and the plot still may lack the precision desired for research. With GPS-RTK auto steering, row crops can be planted with near perfect guess rows, increasing accuracy in the plot. It also greatly reduces the possibility of cultivation blight. With no till cropping practices such as skip row, the crop residues are not destroyed in the unplanted rows. With small grain plots, a great amount of time is saved in laying out and flagging the plots. A narrow guess row in small grain plots is also very difficult to harvest. Auto steer greatly increases the accuracy of guess row width, making harvesting much easier and more accurate.