Is your GPS ready for Spring

Every year we get ready for seeding and spraying which means we make sure the oil is changed in the equipment, the seed is cleaned and treated and the crop plan is finalized. But the one thing that most growers forget to do until they make the first pass with the sprayer is to check to see if there are any updates for their GPS system. Why is this important, well there are updates that come through no different than your computer at home. These updates are designed to help fix problems or make the system run more efficiently which in a short spring we want everything to go as smooth as possible. As most growers tell me, the phone calls from employee’s used to be the radio isn’t working or the seat won’t move up or down. But know as soon as they lose GPS signal there is a 5 alarm fire going off and we need to fix this now. One operator actually told me that he just stopped seeding because he lost signal. I asked him why and he told me that he didn’t want to have to correct his curvy lines in the field so he waited five minutes and went back at it. Now with all of this being said it just takes a quick call to your GPS provider to see if there are any updates. Most spring startup problems with our GPS systems are cause by missing new software updates and our system can’t read the new data it is getting. So lets make our lives a little bit easier and straighter and make that call.

Those are my thoughts,

Garth Donald C.C.A.