7 in stock across 17 Indiana and Ohio dealerships, from $125 to $3,500.
Usually yes, but start with the parts that pay quickly. Guidance and automatic section control on a planter and sprayer cut overlap on headlands and point rows, and on the small irregular fields common in Indiana and Ohio the savings on seed and chemical are proportionally larger than on big square fields. Variable rate and prescription work require good soil data and management, and that investment pays later. Buy guidance and section control first, then build the data side.
Precision ag equipment pays when it removes overlap, places inputs more accurately, and produces data you actually use, and it wastes money when it is bought as hardware without a plan for the data behind it. Buying used displays, receivers, and modems can save real money in Indiana and Ohio operations, provided you verify activations, compatibility, and subscription status before the money changes hands.
The clearest returns come from reducing overlap. Automatic section control on a planter and a sprayer eliminates double planted and double sprayed headlands and point rows, and on the irregular field shapes common across Indiana and Ohio that saving shows up immediately in seed and chemical costs. Guidance reduces skips and overlaps on tillage and application passes, which saves fuel and time, and it lets you work accurately at night and in dust when the weather window is short.
The second tier of value is variable rate application and prescription based seeding and fertility, which requires good soil data and management zones to be worth anything. The third is documentation: as planted and as applied records, yield data, and field boundaries that let you compare decisions across years. Buy in that order. Guidance and section control pay quickly and predictably, while prescription work pays only when the underlying agronomy is sound.
Satellite correction comes in tiers, and each step up costs more and buys tighter accuracy. The entry level correction gives you pass to pass accuracy suitable for tillage, spreading, and general field work, where being within a few inches of the last pass is fine. Mid tier corrections tighten that considerably and are what most operations use for planting and spraying. RTK provides the tightest accuracy and, importantly, repeatability year over year, which is what strip till and controlled traffic depend on.
Match the correction to the operation rather than buying the top tier reflexively. If you strip till and want to plant on top of last fall's strip, or you run controlled traffic to manage compaction, RTK is worth the cost. If you are conventional or no till and mainly want to stop overlapping, mid tier correction is usually sufficient. TRULAND publishes a dealer map for the TRULAND RTK Network, which is the practical way to see whether RTK coverage reaches your ground.
Precision ag hardware is different from iron because software activations and licenses often matter as much as the physical unit. Before buying a used display or receiver, confirm exactly which activations are on it, whether those activations transfer to a new owner, and whether any correction subscription is active or expired. A display without the activation you need is a display you will pay again to make useful. Get the serial number and have your dealer verify what is on it.
Then check compatibility, which is where most used purchases go wrong. Verify the display works with your tractor, planter, sprayer, and combine, that the harnessing exists for those machines, and that the software version is current enough to talk to your other components. Physically inspect the unit for screen damage, dead pixels, worn touch response, corroded connector pins, and cracked housings. Receivers and modems live outside in weather, so look at the mount, the cable, and the connector closely.
You do not need a new machine to get most of the benefit. Older tractors can be fitted with steering kits and displays, planters can be retrofitted with section control clutches and rate control, and sprayers can be fitted with boom section control. The economics usually work when the base machine is sound and you plan to keep it. What to check before committing is whether the machine has the hydraulic capability, electrical capacity, and CAN architecture the system expects, and what the harness and installation labor will cost.
Be realistic about limits. Retrofit steering on an older tractor performs well for guidance but will not match the integration of a factory system, and some features simply require newer machine electronics. Where retrofits nearly always make sense is section control on a planter and a sprayer, because the input savings are immediate and measurable on irregular fields.
Hardware collects data, but the value depends on whether the data is organized. Consistent client, farm, and field naming, accurate boundaries, and clean product records are what let you compare a hybrid across years or check whether a variable rate prescription actually did anything. Most operations that feel disappointed by precision ag have hardware working fine and a data set nobody has cleaned up in three seasons.
TRULAND offers a Total Farm Support Plan at $1,500, available spring or fall only, which includes an Operations Center pre season review and data clean up, data transfer from Operations Center to equipment, software updates for equipment compatibility, in field technology startup, and full year Call Center support. For operations that want the technology working without becoming the in house specialist, that kind of package is usually the difference between a system that gets used and one that gets switched off.
Accurate field boundaries are the foundation for section control, coverage maps, and prescriptions, and they are worth getting right once rather than approximating every season. TRULAND offers boundary mapping using a TRULAND supplied 835M Gator with precision ag equipment, driving the boundaries and uploading them into John Deere Operations Center, with a Full Service Boundary Program available.
On the agronomy side, TRULAND's Data Services run $1 per acre, where TRULAND creates management zones or sample grids and uploads them to Operations Center, and soil test results and prescriptions are uploaded to Operations Center, with the customer pulling samples and paying lab fees. In season soil nitrogen testing, known as PSNT, is $60 per sample, plant tissue testing under the PT2 package is $60 per sample, and manure testing under the M5 package is $90 per sample. In season nitrogen and tissue testing are particularly relevant in the eastern Corn Belt, where wet springs move nitrogen and complicate sidedress decisions.
The busiest hours of planting and harvest are exactly when a technology problem costs the most, so support access matters. TRULAND runs a Precision Ag Support Center reachable at (260) 296-2391, and offers a Phone Support plan at $299 per year covering diagnostics and code assistance, in field operational and precision ag questions, and Operations Center data support both in and off season. TRULAND also publishes guides, a parts finder, and video libraries covering general help, Operations Center, harvest, sprayer, and planting.
Do your updating in the off season, not the week before planting. Software versions across the display, receiver, modem, and machine controllers need to be compatible, and finding that out in the field is a bad way to spend a good planting day. Connectivity through a modem lets files move between the machine and Operations Center without carrying a card around, and remote display access lets support see what you see, which shortens a lot of troubleshooting calls.
External sources are provided for reference. For anything specific to your machine or your operation, call the store nearest you.
More equipment
Usually yes, but start with the parts that pay quickly. Guidance and automatic section control on a planter and sprayer cut overlap on headlands and point rows, and on the small irregular fields common in Indiana and Ohio the savings on seed and chemical are proportionally larger than on big square fields. Variable rate and prescription work require good soil data and management, and that investment pays later. Buy guidance and section control first, then build the data side.
Satellite based corrections are delivered by subscription through the receiver and give accuracy ranging from a few inches pass to pass at the entry level to roughly an inch at the higher tiers. RTK uses a base station or a network to deliver the tightest accuracy with repeatability year to year, meaning you can return to the same line next season. RTK matters for strip till, controlled traffic, and any operation where you plant back on a prior pass. For general tillage and spreading, satellite correction is enough.
Often yes, but verify three things first. Confirm the activations and licenses on that display cover what you want to do and that they transfer to you. Confirm compatibility with your specific tractor, planter, sprayer, or combine, including harnessing and software versions. Confirm any correction subscription status, since subscriptions and activations are separate. Get the serial number and have a dealer check it before you pay, because a display missing the activation you need costs more to fix than the savings.
TRULAND offers a Phone Support plan at $299 per year, covering diagnostics and code assistance, in field operational and precision ag questions, and Operations Center data support in and off season. There is also a Total Farm Support Plan at $1,500, offered spring or fall only, which adds an Operations Center pre season review and data clean up, data transfer to equipment, software updates for compatibility, and in field technology startup. The Precision Ag Support Center number is (260) 296-2391.
Yes, primarily through reduced overlap and skips, lower fuel and input use, and longer productive days. On tillage, planting, spraying, and spreading, eliminating overlap on every pass adds up across a season. The less obvious benefit is operator fatigue: steering accurately for fourteen hours is exhausting, and an operator who is not fighting the wheel makes better decisions and can watch the implement. Payback is typically fastest on wide implements and on operations covering a lot of acres.
For planting, mid tier satellite correction giving roughly an inch to a few inches is adequate for most conventional and no till operations, and it supports section control well. Move to RTK when you need repeatability between passes and between years, such as planting on top of fall strip till berms, running controlled traffic lanes, or doing precise inter row work. Higher accuracy costs more in both hardware and subscription, so match it to what the operation actually requires.
It is the online platform where field boundaries, machine data, as planted and as applied records, yield data, prescriptions, and soil test results live. Files move between it and equipment either by modem or by memory card. Its value depends on data hygiene: consistent field naming, accurate boundaries, and clean product records are what make year over year comparisons meaningful. TRULAND offers Operations Center review and data clean up as part of its Total Farm Support Plan and offers Operations Center data support through its phone support plan.
It is worth doing once and doing right, because boundaries underpin section control, coverage maps, and prescriptions, and rough approximations create errors everywhere downstream. TRULAND offers boundary mapping using a TRULAND supplied 835M Gator with precision ag equipment, driving the boundaries and uploading them into John Deere Operations Center, and a Full Service Boundary Program is available. If you farm a lot of rented ground with changing acres, having boundaries done accurately saves confusion at planting and at application.
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