Once upon a time in 2014 in far land of Hamburg, there was a farmer Jan Lausen. Who had a beautiful wife and 100 hectares of land to live on. Every year Jan had to work very hard in the field, he had to wake up very early in the morning and spend all day in the field doing tilting, seeding, spraying, harvesting and other zillion jobs that he had to do. And although he was trying so hard he was not 100% satisfied with his job: his rows were not straight, because of overlaps and missing sports he had to spend more materials, and what stressed him most – he had to spend more time on this boring job instead of spending it with his lovely wife. He started to search for a solution and as always in fairy tales – a miracle has happened. He found an application for farmers – eFarmer tractor navigation app (was rebranded to FieldBee app later). Jan liked the application so much, that he was one who pre-ordered FieldBee L1 receiver during crowdfunding campaign, then base station, L2 receiver, mechanical autosteer and recently even became the first customer who installed FieldBee hydraulic autosteer system. Jan enjoyed FieldBee products so much that he started to share his positive experience with other farmers. He became FieldBee ambassador and is supporting and motivating the team of Neverland (Dutch-Ukainian) magic elves to continue their work and improve and improve FieldBee products. In November 2020 Jan participated on a webinar where he was sharing his experience with other farmers. He talked about his experience with mechanical and hydraulic autosteer usage, savings and his own tricks on the field. We will focus now on a life changing decision that Jan made in 2014. This decision has changed his life and maybe it can influence yours (even in the next season). Quote: “Buying FieldBee was the best decision in my life. No, actually marrying my wife was the best, and buying FieldBee was the second best”, – said Jan during the webinar.

According to Jan Lausen’s experience with 100 ha field, spraying is the best operation for an autosteer to start, because for one field he saves 50 litres of a sprayer. For planting corn, autosteer helps to plant in exact spots and at harvesting time, you know exactly where each individual corn plant is located. One more big advantage that Jan has mentioned: you can save at least 15 minutes/day per each field operation, which means your productivity will grow on 10% (on average).

Installation can take from several hours up to several days, depending on which option suits you the most. You can install autosteer in 3 ways: 1. Do it yourself – one can spend up to 1-3 days (depends on your tractor model), read tutorials, manuals and watch how-to videos. Set up online appointments with the customer success team for initial set up. You will try and adjust the system with us. Be ready to spend time on it and keep communication with our team as well. 2. With your local mechanic – he needs to have experience installing auto steering systems by New Holland, Raven, Mueller-Electronics, Ag Leader, TeeJet. We will provide tutorials, manuals and how-to videos. At this point, be ready for spending additional costs for mechanician works. 3. By authorized partner – installation service by FieldBee engineer or local authorized partner is available upon request in some countries/regions. Contact us to find out more about this option. This service guarantees hassle-free installation and high performance. Jan chose to install mechanical autosteer on his own because he had some experience and was ready to spend 8 hours to do that. Speed restrictions. You can achieve 2km/h in the slowest speed and up to 18km/h for the highest speed on your tractor with an autosteer system.

There is no strict difference between autosteer. Everything depends on your tractor model. For comparing: Mechanical autosteer: can be easily switched between tractors. You need to take into eyes your way and lead the steer sometimes. Hydraulic autosteer: can achieve higher speed and drive up to 18 km/ha. Autosteer, in general, is a great solution because you can use it even at old tractor models.