|
| My analysis of the value of the Mojo is hard to put into words for some reason. There are so many options now that deciding what is most cost effective is difficult. One complicating factor is that I'm noticing more RTK equipment showing up on the used market now. I think if I were to do it now, I would look in that direction. When we did it, maybe there was used stuff available or maybe there wasn't but I had not yet educated myself enough on the options to know what was good and what wasn't.
I will say that at the price we paid for the MojoRTK, we feel it was worth it. At the price that it is now (I think 16,000) I would probably look for a different route.
We thought that an added benefit (in addition to not having to overlap while drilling wheat) of having RTK would be that we would be able to plant between the rows on corn without ever having to worry about whether the operator would make the correct decision on when to nudge and which way, etc.
Our experience of driving our planter on strips led us to believe that the MojoRTK would follow something that was done by another RTK setup quite well (we had our strip tilling done by a custom operator). However, this year as we're planting behind the rows that we planted with the Mojo unit last year, our experience has not been as good as expected.
I think a significant part of the problem is that a 30' strip till rig pulls pretty straight behind the tractor compared to how a drawn 40' planter pulls behind a tractor. I believe had I benn more focused on writing down which line had been used in what field, things would have gone better. I could have just moved the lines 15 inches. Instead, the first year I just figured that I wouldn't hassle with writing the number of the line down and instead I would just re-create the line this year by driving the rows. The problem is that I have no idea how to tell as I set my a point whether the planter was directly behind the tractor or if it was a few inches to the left or if it was a few inches to the right. In addition, I do not know if the tractor was a few inches left or right of the line (it does vary some every once in awhile with the EZ-Steer). Therefore, it is difficult to replicate the first years row by driving that row the second year.
That was a long way of saying that I've discovered that it is very important to save the AB line if driving between rows is important to you.
I think that some of the better stuff like an Insight, Field Manager or an FmX would probably be better at helping to remember AB lines rather than writing them down and worrying about losing the paper over the course of the next year. That's why I would lean towards and FmX because it's supposed to be able to drive an EZ-Steer sometime. If the EZ-Guide 500 is easy to recall AB lines, that would be fine as well.
I've always been curious about your harvesting operation. We have hired our crops cut for years because we have traditionally been adverse to hiring and managing labor. We farm about 5000 acres and it's mostly continuous crop every year. We can do a good job of taking care of it with two full time people but to harvest it in a timely manner it would take 6 to 8 people for wheat harvest and during fall harvest it would be 8 to 10 people because we are frequently drilling wheat while fall harvest is going on. We would either have to find something for between 6 and 8 people to do for the rest of the year that would enable them to pay for themselves or we would have to find between 6 and 8 competent people for part time labor two times a year. If I could figure something out that would be dependable and efficient, I think I'd be interested in getting maybe 3 2388's and an 800 to 1000 bushel grain cart and more semi's but since I'm unsure about the labor situation, I just can't see myself going in that direction. | |
|
Hydraulic Drives to control Planter sections
