Growers Seeing Results from Raven’s Smart Products
July 8, 2009 Farming, Benjamin Gwynn admits, is in his blood. A third-generation farmer, Gwynn says he values the independent lifestyle farming provides.
“My family has always farmed. I never thought of doing anything else,” says Gwynn, 31, who farms 1,000 acres of grain sorghum, corn and cotton near Robstown, Texas. “I like making my own decisions and watching what I put in the ground grow.”
Gwynn made the decision a few years ago to integrate precision agriculture technology into his one-man farming operation.
“Precision ag makes me more efficient. Since I farm on my own, I need to take advantage of every minute I have,” says Gwynn, who uses Raven’s Smart products – Cruizer guidance system and SmartRow planter section control – to maximize his planting efficiency.
Raven’s Cruizer guidance system is simple to install, with an easy-to-use and read monitor that visually shows Gwynn where he’s been in his field, and where he needs to go.
“Because I can see where I’ve been, I don’t miss anything. The touch screen is very easy to use,” says Gwynn, adding that installation was simple.
Simple installation is a key design component to each of the Raven Smart solutions, says Anthony Schmidt, director of product management, Applied Technology Division, Raven Industries.
“You can have it installed in your tractor within 5 minutes of buying it,” Schmidt says. “We’ve had people buy Cruizer at a farm show and tell us that they plugged it into their pick-up’s power source and had it figured out in only a few minutes.”
Gwynn says that not only do the Smart products increase his efficiency, they maximize his inputs. SmartRow controls his planting sections. Like Cruizer, it works with GPS to automatically turn planter sections on and off, so he doesn’t have to worry about over-planting.
“Seed has gotten so expensive – with $350 bags of cottonseed and $250 bags of corn seed – it doesn’t take too much seed to pay for the technology,” Gwynn says. “I noticed the seed savings right away. I have bags left over.”
Schmidt says that in field studies, based on field conditions, producers can expect to save between 5 and 15 percent of their inputs when they utilize SmartRow or it’s sister product, SmartBoom™, designed to control sprayer sections. Raven designed both products to utilize the same control system, allowing producers to utilize both systems and only invest in one system.
“We designed these Smart solutions to maximize every pass through a field,” says Tim Heins, product manager, Applied Technology Division at Raven Industries.
Working off the farm fulltime, and farming his family’s ground on the side, Stan Bruns says he depends on Raven’s Smart technology to help him do just that.
“I have to make every minute count. When the weather’s right I have to get what needs done in as few passes through the field as I can,” says Bruns, 55, adding that sometimes this means using vacation days to farm.
Bruns is the third-generation to farm his family’s ground, in Utica, Neb. Putting in long, and sometimes very late nights farming, he says SmartSteer™ helps him get his fieldwork done safely and accurately.
“It’s hands free farming,” he says, describing the portable, assisted steering system. “SmartSteer takes the stress out of it. You don’t have to watch what you are doing all the time and can keep track of other things.”
SmartSteer fully integrates into his tractor’s steering system, using direct drive, SmartSteer attaches to tractor’s steering wheel, eliminating slippage and increasing accuracy.
He says that using Smart technology takes the stress out of farming, maximizes his time and investment.
“I’m a low-budget farmer – most of my equipment is older – with the Cruizer and SmartSteer I can keep track of acres, know how much ground I’m covering, I don’t overlap, and my spacing is more accurate – whether it’s daylight or not,” says Bruns.
This planting season was the first that Ralph Balko, 57, used SmartRow. Planting 1,900 of his 2,700 acres himself, he says it was nice to rely on SmartRow and not worry about turning sections off and on.
“It reduced a tremendous amount of stress. Before using SmartRow, when I’d hit those end rows I turn the sections off, then I’d get half way down the field before I remembered to turn the sections back on,” says Balko, who farms wheat, cotton and grain sorghum in Nueces County, Texas.
Looking back on what technology was available when he began farming in 1974, Balko says precision ag technology has evolved beyond his expectations.
“If you’d said 20 years ago that I could plant with this much accuracy, pass after pass, I would not have believed you,” Balko says. “Today, using SmartRow makes perfect sense. Think of how much seed goes to waste every year without it. As seed costs go up so does the savings from using SmartRow.”
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