The tillage sector is not loaded with investment resources right now but the TAMS Tillage Capital Investment Scheme is still a welcome development, especially if it continues to run in parallel with the other TAMS programmes. It remains to be seen as to how much of the funding allocation will be taken up or grant-aided but the facilities and equipment covered can provide welcome support to the sector. Schedule dates are awkward as most options are now for next season rather than this one.

Most will be aware that the scheme supports a range of investment opportunities ranging from grain storage to rainwater harvesting. It covers the grain store itself, elevators, dryers, conveyers, store dividers, roof safety cages, rainwater harvesting equipment, rewiring buildings, wheel-changing equipment and a range of GPS machinery control and application control equipment. There is also support for reduced cultivation and drilling equipment.

In the tillage sector, GPS control options include controlled steering of equipment, control systems for sprayers and automated control systems for fertiliser spreaders. While many of these options might not have been on the minds of most growers, the fact that they can be aided by a 40% grant adds to their potential affordability and usefulness for those considering changing such implements.

Will it be worthwhile?

However, growers still need to be judicious in making any such investment. Getting 40% off the cost is not a good reason as you will still be spending more than you might need to. One should rightly ask where the returns from investment in this technology will come from and how long it might take you to recoup the additional cost involved.

The answer is that it depends on many things, including what the specific investment is. Start with the tractor. The main item here is auto-steer. If you want real precision, then you fit the highly accurate RTK technology. This can even be used to steer the tractor up and down the tramlines. This could give the driver the opportunity to keep a better eye on the crops around you, to mark spots where a weed needs to be rogued, or something else checked. It could also help where fatigue is a regular issue.

It is important to know where the additional cost of a GPS investment will be returned from. What will your technology investment cost, where will the benefits come from and over what period? Being able to keep your tractor in the tramlines with auto-steer is a potential plus, but doing the other things suggested above will accelerate the payback and will have long-term consequences. But if you are not prepared to go back and rogue out those 10 wild oats, or that one unknown grassweed, then it may be more difficult to show a return on this technology.

Of course, this technology can be used for many other convenient reasons. Drilling is just one simple example but it can also extend to cultivation equipment. Accurate avoidance of overlaps saves time and cost during drilling and it can also save on seed and time for drilling. But will you have the RTK unit in the same tractor that cultivates, sprays and spreads? It may also be possible to take an auto-steer unit out of a tractor and put it into a combine of self-propelled sprayer to broaden its usefulness.

Auto-steer can operate with a lower level of accuracy than RTK but this is unlikely to be accurate enough to drive in the tramlines by itself so you might question its value. This could still be of benefit for spraying or spreading on stubbles or cultivated land where there is little other bout guidance. But it is important to remember that you do not need auto-steer at all to operate the GPS facilities on a sprayer or spreader.

GPS equipment and auto-steer are not the same thing – auto-steer is just one of the many pieces of equipment that utilises GPS. Nowadays, your sprayer can be fitted with a range of shut-off systems that can be as basic as automatic shut-off on the headlands to automatic shut-off for each of the individual boom sections on your sprayer when spraying non-perpendicular joins and even to individual nozzle cut-off, which refines this last option considerably

Judging the benefit to you of any of these options depends on your individual circumstances. This means the shape of your fields and the levels of overlap necessary to ensure complete coverage. It is also influenced by the amount of chemicals you apply on average.

The more chemicals you apply and the more irregular your fields are, the greater the potential benefit and the faster the payback.

This must be an individual grower decision but the professionals can help you judge the cost return benefits.

The automation of on/off can also be very useful on spreaders. If you find it difficult to get this right then you are either losing yield in the missed areas due to insufficient fertiliser or running the risk of lodging where you over apply.

Spreaders

When introduced, the scheme targeted the additional GPS equipment fitted to fertiliser spreaders providing it had the capability for automated on/off, the ability to control targeted application rate and the ability to control bout width to minimise overlaps. Many machines already have automated on/off capability in conjunction with rate control. The additional capability now required to be able to alter bout width is to help minimise overspread on ins and outs at headlands, especially where there are steep angles.

The spreader itself was not covered by the initial TAMS support, only the additional cost of the GPS elements. However, the spreader is now to be included in the next tranche of TAMS which opens in July. But only spreaders fitted with GPS controls, plus bout width control capability, are to be grant-aided. Many growers could benefit from this measure.

Sprayers

The availability of grant aid for GPS spraying equipment already includes the base cost of the sprayer itself plus the additional cost of the GPS controls. The package of features makes this a realistic consideration for growers.

All these sprayer systems need GPS to activate the location signal to tell each part of the sprayer exactly where it is relative to a previous bout. This information is even more critical where tramlines join headlands at angles – acute or otherwise. Depending on whether you have section shutoff or nozzle shutoff, those units should automatically turn off or on to minimise spray overlap. This will reduce the total amount of chemical applied so it has potential benefit in terms of savings.

The accuracy of this response will be influenced to a small degree by accuracy of your control signal. But with all sprayers using fan nozzles requiring double overlap, the benefit of higher signal accuracy is hardly worth the cost. The benefit of high accuracy systems is more likely to be found in planting accuracy to keep the tramlines at the specified width for subsequent input application.

Deciding on which, if any, of these options to go for depends on your own individual circumstances. You need a unit that will provide payback and not just a toy.

The more use you have for an implement, the quicker it is likely to provide a payback.

There are also environmental benefits from both spreaders and sprayers through preventing or minimising excessive application on overlaps.

  • TAMS provides grant aid for a number of potentially useful GPS control systems for spreaders and sprayers.
  • Consider if and where any of these systems can provide real benefit for you before applying.
  • Individual circumstances will influence the time required to get a payback on any investment.
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    Special focus on sprays: crops and grassland