Although the Zunckels had successfully farmed using no-till practices for many years, performing field operations without a high-accuracy GNSS solution impacted their potential yields.
Tyson Zunckel began searching for a GNSS correction service to increase the accuracy of their precision agriculture guidance equipment about nine years ago. He ruled out the option of building an RTK tower due to cost and eliminated another correction service after trying it and experiencing frustrating results.
Approach
After learning more about Trimble CenterPoint RTX from Trimble at the Nampo Farm Show, Zunckel was sold. They began using CenterPoint RTX on their sprayer that same season. Right from the start, CenterPoint RTX impressed the Zunckels with its accuracy. Additionally, CenterPoint began to provide convergence times faster than those promised by Trimble — another plus for busy farmers with no time to waste. Trimble CenterPoint RTX provides an alternative to traditional ground-based RTK to achieve centimeter-level accuracy via satellite.
“We literally come back year-after-year without touching anything, hit engage and the sprayer finds the same line or the planter goes on the same line. You don’t have to change anything. Overall, CenterPoint RTX is a brilliant product.” — Tyson Zunckel
Results
The Zunckels report that CenterPoint RTX achieves accuracy levels between 0 and 2.5 centimeters while hitting the rows properly. They also advise convergence times are a non-issue as it’s ready to go within the five minutes it takes them to get to the field.
