GPS on a ATV????

larry merlau

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Delton, Michigan
i had atv drive a pattern in a hay field picking up sticks with white disk attached to the top???? does any of you farmers have any idea what the heck this guy was doing? the disks had been there for awhile but he had a GPS module attached to his machine in the back.. i dont know what he was upto and am curious...
 
I think its called "painting"


Sometimes the military uses a laser beam and paints a target for the fighters to launch a laser guided missile.
But when the explosion is going to be a couple miles wide, like a weapon of mass destruction, they lay down those little radio emitting disks so the bomb can be dropped from 35 thouisand feet and hit a pinhead.
Its ok if you live 4 or 5 miles away, so dont worry about it.
Besides, last I heard Michigan was still part of the USA.(did he look russian?)
 
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I think its called "painting"


Sometimes the military uses a laser beam and paints a target for the fighters to launch a laser guided missile.
But when the explosion is going to be a couple miles wide, like a weapon of mass destruction, they lay down those little radio emitting disks so the bomb can be dropped from 35 thouisand feet and hit a pinhead.
Its ok if you live 4 or 5 miles away, so dont worry about it.
Besides, last I heard Michigan was still part of the USA.(did he look russian?)
Whatever you did Larry, you got someone's attention!:eek::rofl::rofl::rofl:

The good part is, you'll never know what hit you.:D
 
We got them on snowmobiles, and there was a smart woman over on the sheep forum that had problems with her neighbors dog and her livestock guard dog getting into some fights at night. By putting GPS on her dogs she found out that the neighbors dog was going the long way around to bother her sheep. The dog had never ventured far from "his flock", so he was doing his job. Since the neighbor was in the wrong, and a dog bothering sheep can be held liable for losses to the sheep, she kept her dog in at night.

I like technology. :)
 
my second guess, is that maybe it was one of those discount airlines, and they sent the guy out to pick up any pieces that might have fallen off the plane when it passed over the field.
 
shame on yus

:Dboy you guys have let me down,,,:) i told my nephew that i would have a real answer by the time we got back tonight,,, boy was i wrong,, frank i didnt pick them up i just mailed them to my friends(enimies), it was strang we wer walkin down the lane and this passed us in the feild grabbed thiese things as they come along and left just as quick must of sett them out noonish cuz we left for breakfast and there wa only approx 3 or 4 hours between us being there... do they use gps to mark fields for sprayun now days? they used to use plastic pails or paper bags in the past times..
 
My guess is they were laser targets for either survey or planting. The GPS unit on the ATV might have had nothing to do with the guy picking them up.
 
i dont thionk they are planting anything in there its a hay now, but they are doing something sometime:dunno: why would they need lazer targets vaughn to plant a feild they can see in the day light??? noyt being smart just dont understand.. now for planting large feilds i understand having a target at onwe end to head for but this is approx 20acres is all x 2
 
Any chance that they could be planning to plant rice? :dunno:

Norman's comment brought to mind the drive I made through NE Arkansas this summer. As we drove past rice fields, one of my brothers told me a bit about the high-tech elevation mapping they use to plan out the meandering terraces that result in even water coverage, drainage, etc.

Dunno, of course ... just a thought. :huh:
 
: .. do they use gps to mark fields for sprayun now days? they used to use plastic pails or paper bags in the past times..

SOME of the crop Dusters down here do use gps instead of the old flagmen or paper cup markers. I didn't ever ask exactly how they set them up, but one Duster about 65 miles South East of here uses them and has his own signal compensator generator with a tall antenna by his hangar that makes the GPS accurate to 3 1/2 ft (IIRC), and he said he has all the fields in his area mapped and entered into his computerized GPS system and he can spray any field in that area without any help, (except for his sons that refill his hopper and refuel the plane when he comes back in).
 
Could it be the NRCS doing soil testing? They use satellites and lasers to get a feel for the soil types and depth of soil to bedrock.
 
Could it be the NRCS doing soil testing? They use satellites and lasers to get a feel for the soil types and depth of soil to bedrock.

i had that thought travis, is that how they would check to see if it ewas a good gravel pit spot? cuz that is something they are doing in my area, buying ground and takin out th gravel and leavin it raped.
 
In a word...yes they can. I recently downloaded a custom soil report from the NRCS and it contained 34 pages on soils, and soil types. It clearly showed on it the gravel pits we have. Its like anything, they take a sampling, then use history and patterns to develop an idea what the soil is like in between the areas tested.

Here is what my Home Field has for soil as downloaded from the NRCS website:

3.5 Acres of 2E Soil
6% Slope

Soil:
MbB—Marlow fine sandy loam, 3 to 8 percent slopes
Marlow and similar soils: 83 percent

Description of Marlow Setting

Landform: Drumlinoid ridges
Down-slope shape: Convex
Across-slope shape: Convex
Parent material: Coarse-loamy lodgment till derived from granite and/or
coarse-loamy lodgment till derived from mica schist

Properties and qualities

Slope: 3 to 8 percent
Depth to restrictive feature: 20 to 36 inches to dense material
Drainage class: Well drained
Capacity of the most limiting layer to transmit water (Ksat): Moderately
low to moderately high (0.06 to 0.60 in/hr)
Depth to water table: About 18 to 26 inches
Frequency of flooding: None
Frequency of ponding: None
Available water capacity: Low (about 3.4 inches)

Interpretive groups
Land capability (nonirrigated): 2e

Typical profile
0 to 6 inches: Fine sandy loam
6 to 24 inches: Fine sandy loam
24 to 60 inches: Fine sandy loam


I have yet to disprove the NRCS satellite testing via real-world soil tests. What it says via satellite is what we are seeing on the ground. Its pretty darn accurate in other words.

Its also pretty cool. I can literally check what I have fo soil type just outside my door and never leave my computer or my coffee. More astonishingly, you can too as 95% of the US has been tested.

You can check this out, and generate your own custom soil report by going to the NRCS Web Soil Service. The program is a bit goofy, and takes awhile to get used to as it is processing a lot of data, but it is useful. I get all my maps from that. Its great because I can pick out individual fields, then figure out how many acres, and how many miles of wire I need to fence them in.

Oh and yes EVERYTHING is free. At first I let the "add to Cart" and "Checkout" tab hold me back as I don't part from a dollar bill easily but its a misnomer. Its all free. As I said, it takes awhile to figure out, but its been a great resource for me.

Web Soil Service
 
There's widespread use of GPS in agriculture Larry. As someone said, he could have been mapping for land drainage or contouring, or maybe even laying out a corn maze!
A lot of farmers in this area are using a system called "Auto steer" now. It gives perfect row spacing and therefore more effecient fertiliser use, pest control etc.
Or, it could be some Russian targeting system. Stay inside the shop, just in case.

Peter:D
 
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