The arrival of a LaForge GPS-steering headstock has ushered in a new era of accuracy for Shropshire organic spud and root veg grower T C and N Taylor.
Ultra-accurate RTK guidance and autosteer have perfected the art of driving tractors in precise parallel runs, but they need some assistance when rear-mounted implements step out of line. Shropshire-based, organic vegetable grower T C and N Taylor faced exactly this problem with its ridging operation, which must be accurate because it sets out the path for all other operations to follow.
“GPS will tend to steer the tractor up when you’re going across a hillside, which causes the ridger to hang down and put in a curve. In some places we were getting 6in (15cm) or more out of line,” says farm manager James Britton. “We then came in with our destoners, which have GPS-guided steering axles, and they would fight to correct the line and start steering up the ridge; everyone dreaded doing that job.”
Getting back in line
In a bid to solve the problem, James and his team decided to try a side-shift headstock that would correct the path of the implement, bringing it into line with the tractor. This came in the form of a LaForge DynaTrac Premium that they initially demoed from dealer Rea Valley Tractors four years ago. This unit sits between the tractor and ridger and offers up to 50cm of GPS-controlled side shift. As the farm runs Greenstar guidance across its tractor fleet, it has been set up to operate using John Deere’s Active Implement
Guidance. This relies on having Starfire 6000 receivers on both the tractor and headstock, which communicate with one another so that they stay in line.
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