Have had it since case pro 700 had it. Was terrible in them. Much better in the 1200s but complicated to use and setup, i would use it but pretty much everyone else wouldn’t use it because they didn’t want to screw it up. Switched everything to ag leader and it’s by far the most superior one we’ve used. Used in sprayers and tractors now. One thing about auto turn is you do need to have all your borders installed in the monitor however.

 

Can the headland pass act as the border or do you have to have a border for each field? How do you go about setting these borders up? If you have a border entered will the sprayer follow the exact edge of the border? Thanks for the help

 

We did all of ours years ago, basically any system when you do your outside round there is a border function. I only have experience with the CNH, Trimble and Ag Leader systems so can’t speak on the others. I think there might be a function where it creates a border based on your headland but I’m not sure as we’ve had our borders for quite a while. We actually just conceive the outside with a quad if we need to do a new one, find it much more accurate. Ag Leader will do your outside round and however many more after that you want, all auto steered, usually take over for it on the sharp turns but for the most part it’s excellent. CNH would do it but again, complicated setup and not nearly as reliable. And then after the outside round it gets real dicey.

We typically do two when seeding and then swath skip from there to make the turns nice. Sprayer we do two but no swath skipping.

 

The Pro-700 has a "Field" swath type that is generated from the boundary that you can use for headland passes. It's semi useful. For whatever reason it picks a random spot on the boundary to shift over to the next pass, which is super annoying. Typical example of something that was engineered by someone with no farming experience. They should have just created concentric curve paths (concentric to the boundary) instead, as a farmer is going to do his own shifting from one headland pass to another when and where he wants. And none of the systems I've used understand how farmers farm around pivots.

 

Torriem do you use the auto turn feature on any of your systems?

 

I have AccuTurn unlocked on my sprayer on the Pro 700 but rarely use it. Like @kauppfarms said, it's not easy to set up. You have to have a boundary first, then you have to create a "headland" and enable that. Basically AccuTurn triggers on crossing into the headland. I don't think the turns it creates are always the same. In other words if you did herbicide pass one with it turning for you, on pass two a few weeks later I don't think it will follow the same track exactly unless speeds were precisely the same. By the way I've never quite understood guys doing two headland passes for spraying because that would tramp a lot of crop down. Sprayers are wide and capable of turning relatively tightly, so turning onto the single headland tracks makes the most sense to me... but are there any auto turn systems that can do that other than Brian Tischler's homemade AgOpenGPS?

But the main reason I don't use AccuTurn is because it doesn't work well with pivot circles. I used to always do a single headland and turn on the headland track as exactly as I could, minimizing crop destruction. AccuTurn could never do that (minimize the amount of crop tramped down). Now I have changed the way I do things a little. I spray a single headland pass and turn like I did before for the widest part of the circle, but as soon as I have room in the corners to turn aound (usually about 3 or 4 passes out from the center line of the field), I now drive straight through and turn outside the field boundary. If you haven't farmed a pivot circle that might not make sense! Anyway AccuTurn definitely cannot do that!

 

I've been running NextSwath on Trimble in sprayer for about 8 years now. I really like it on the sprayer, just do 1 headland have it set for about 1' off boundary. It is pretty well flawless and you're going the same route will make the same identical track on track turn each separate application. Like the others Boundaries are all preloaded but I've never used it for an automated headland pass (apparently it has that functionality) but I just have individual lines for each field side right now.

Also run it on a Fendt 933 using FendtOne system. I would rate it next level, it will premap the whole field and if it can make the turn it will, otherwise advise you it can't. The difference is, you don't need to interact with the screen as long as the turn is possible and you are at the right speed. Auto headland slow down, turn, auto speed up away it goes - no intervention

 

not to be a dick, I know the tech is cool.....but I learned how to turn in a headland at age 12 with a 1086 and a 16ft chisel plow.... what's happening to us???

 

The math and capabilities between systems is staggering for auto turn.
Nextswath works well. Fendt One and Claas’ new system the same. I find the CNH offering to be slow sluggish and not very well refined especially for higher speed turns.
Outback when they had the Max/Rebel platform ad neat tidy and efficient auto turns.
The new FJ’s are all capable of auto turning - basic u-turn only for what we do.

 

Christian I have a new Claas Cemis, one of the first field ones running in new Xerion since last summer. I don't have AutoTurn capability. Do you have one one with different s/w? Been waiting for it.

 

Chaddermd I also learned how to turn doing summerfallow as a teenager in a 1086 pulling a cultivator. With these wider air drills if an auto steer system can do the turn precisely why not let it do so so you don’t start your pass a few inches out especially if you are not running a super wide headland. The reality is people we hire or even our kids have never had the summer-fallow time that we had as kids and couldn’t drive a tractor straight down the field or do the opening pass that is not straight without auto steer.

 

I get it completely......but how then do we ever train and create skill in the people helping us? I have make it a point the last couple of years that when someone new is helping, 1. they never start on the drill. 2. they practice with a harrow or bean roller if possible. 3. I make them do at least 40 acres without gps.....away from the road of coarse!!! for me there is nothing more irritating than getting a call from the hired man saying...my auto steer wont work...and sit there helpless. But the tech is cool and I do use it for everything, but I do like steering on my headlands!!!

 

I've been running the JD turn automation for the last 3 years.. Pretty slick, not only does it automatically turn at the headlands you can also set whichever scv's you use on the headlands as well(up/down shanks when entering,leaving headlands, etc..) and controls tractor speed slower or faster. JD had this feature for a long time previously known as the iTec but much easier to set everything up today than the iTec days. Takes a bit to get everything setup but basically just need to be accurate with your tape measurer and offsets. That and setting up your boundaries for each field which you will need at least SF3 accuracy. Was it worth it? In my mind yes, especially since I was already all setup with the GPS equipment. I have a seedmaster/Bourgault setup, for those who have that setup know there could be up to 4 switches you have to turn off and on at the headlands. Now I only have to switch packing pressure off and on, the rest does it automatically while turning. Which you can check your drill/tank thoroughly while it turns itself. We all put big hours during seeding time and sometimes forget a switch or 2 due to fatigue. This basically eliminates that whether its you or the not so much skilled operator in the seat. I've been doing all the seeding for the last 20 years, since adding this setup my brother and dad who is 70 years old are finally seeding again when needed. They are much comfortable in the seat knowing they have a much lesser chance of forgetting something. Just that in itself is worth something.

 

Did you set up your boundaries up in JDops? How precise did you have to be? We run sectional control on our C850. The couple fields we were trialing VR with SWAT maps and found if the wing touched the boundary while breaking out the field it would shut off the outside section and leave an unseeded strip till you pulled back in. Super annoying.

 

Oh I'm pretty green newbie when it comes to autosteer I have outback max on the seeding tractor I think it is capable of auto turn but I didn't try it. Was pretty happy I figured out how to get it to go straight.

 

You guys realize you can draw boundaries on computer or add 5ft to your boundaries when using sprayer or seedling unit the first time. I personally not a fan of using boundaries most days. Only real use I see for boundaries is if you could mark them perfectly using RTK on a side by side for full section (per nozzle) sprayer.