Background information: We’re new to agriculture and we’re also probably a little different than the norm here as we’re planting a pecan orchard which is a fixed crop as opposed to row crops, seasonal crops, etc… We planted 500 pecan trees last year or about 14 acres. The orchard will eventually be ~35 acres or ~1200 trees. No where near a large commercial setup, but a decent sized medium scale orchard in our area. As in everything, we try to minimize inputs whether it be time or money. I try and do everything myself, not only for the satisfaction of doing it, but also so I know how to fix it when it breaks.
So last winter I’m laying out the rows for the trees/irrigation using a combination of large 3,4,5 triangles, lasers, laser tape measures, regular long tape measures, optical transits, etc… I start trying to figure out how to do this faster. I figure larger pecan growers hire a survey crew to mark rows or trees. I ask an acquaintance who is large grower how they layout their orchards. He tells me autosteer tractors with a single shank plow on the rear. I’m jealous, but don’t have the resources to buy an autosteer tractor, but it sparks off the interest in me.
To lay everything out initially, I had briefly looked at Qgis, but it would have been too time consuming to learn for the benefits especially since I had trees coming shortly. After planting, I start trying to figure out how to do this faster. Well my googling triggered a facebook ad that guided steering with a lightbar on the front of the tractor hood. Shortly after I found AgOpen and fell in love with the concept.
I love the opensource concept and have experience with it in the machining world using LinuxCNC on a mill I bought. However, like all things new, this is like drinking from a waterfall. I’m hoping I can get advice on an intial setup I can use and learn from that will be useful for full autosteer later.
For my needs right now, a base station, as the closest base station in Texas is 150 miles away, and a mobile rover would what I’m looking for. I’d be inputting current locations of irrigation/tree rows, perimeters, etc. and make a layout. After learning with this setup, start on an autosteer system for the tractor for future planting/orchard operations.
Any suggestions for a base station and rover setup would be appreciated.
I’m defintely not a programmer by any means, but with instructions/youtube I can generally get by.
Thanks in advance for your time.