Swath Control and Variable Rate TechnologyyHome

Building on GPS technology are swath control and VRT. This is where guidance really begins to show a return on investment. Swath control is just what it sounds like. The farmer is controlling the size of the swath a given piece of equipment takes through the field. This video is a great visual representation of how swath control works.

The savings come from using less input like seed, fertilizer, herbicides, etc. Since the size and shapes of fields are irregular you are bound to overlap to some extent in every application. Thanks to GPS mapping the equipment in the field already knows where it has been. Swath control shuts off sections of the applicator as it enters the overlap area, saving the farmer from applying twice the inputs on the same piece of ground.

VRT works in a similar fashion. Based on production history and soil tests a farmer can build a prescription GPS map for an input. By knowing what areas of a field are most and least productive the application rate of an input like fertilizer can be tailored to increase or decrease automatically at the appropriate time. This is a big benefit for farms. Instead of applying a set rate of fertilizer over the entire field (many times a high rate to help those low producing areas) an operator can now apply a rate most effective for a particular section of ground.

Source: Indian Agriculture Technology