Tower network guiding farmers

By Ryan Howard
 Fergus Falls Daily Journal, Minn.
  Titan Machinery, RDO Equipment and Butler Machinery have been teaming up to help ensure a more productive harvest for farmers in eastern North Dakota and South Dakota and western Minnesota for several years now, and it looks like the three companies’ joint venture, the Rural Tower Network, will be expanding.
 The Rural Tower Network (RTN) is a series of towers erected to assist subscribing farmers with various auto-guidance and precision farming procedures. The towers work more effectively than satellites alone or tripod mounted transmitters because they are at a fixed location, unaffected by atmosphere or a slight misplacement by a farmer.
 The RTN uses Real Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS, one of the most reliable types of farming GPS. RTK towers transmit data from Russian and United States GPS satellites to mobile farming units, which receive the information from GPS units purchased from Titan, RDO or Butler. However, RTK towers are able to modify the data to better suit farmers’ needs because they are stationary and in close proximity to the area being farmed.
 The information provided by the RTN helps farmers perform essential tasks, like seeding, spraying and harvesting, with pinpoint precision--or, as RTN likes to advertise, "sub-inch accuracy." David Ohm, precision farming specialist at Titan Machinery, said that it’s much more accurate "than trying to drive your tire over a mark."
 Another advantage of getting auto-guidance information from a fixed location is the ability to repeat the accuracy year after year. Tripods require that the farmer place them in the exact same place as they were the year before to get the same measurements and results, but the advantage of a tower is that it never changes position.
 Joel Auck is the store manager at the Fergus Falls Titan Machinery, and he said that his customers in the Foxhome and Rothsay areas who use RTN are very satisfied. Auck said that he tells customers that the towers can work reliably from 6 to 8 miles out, with ranges of up to 10 to 12 miles in an area with flat land on a day with good weather.
 A new tower in the Maine area is expected to go up sometime this year, and Auck said more towers are planned in different areas in the future. He explained that one of the goals of RTN is to overlap signals so that farmers can receive coverage from multiple towers. Subscribing farmers receive coverage from every tower they’re within range of.
 At least five farmers must sign up for a tower in their area in order for it to be built, but Auck was confident that farmers who sign up will be satisfied. "Once they get  towerup, they’ll get guys on it," he said.
 Auck still has some customers who use tripods or other technology, but he is confident that the precision farming afforded by RTN isn’t just a passing fad.
 "It’s the future," he said. "There’s no doubt about it."
 Those interesting is subscribing to RTN should contact the local dealers for RDO Equipment, Titan Machinery or Butler Machinery for more details, or they can check out the RTN Web site at www.ruraltowernetwork.com.

Rural Tower Map