Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 3 shows the amount and percentage of time and fuel savings
farmers attributed to GPS guidance systems in their agricultural vehicles,
while Table 4 shows savings they attributed to autosteering systems in
North Dakota. The average respondent reported saving 65 h of machine
operator time by using GPS guidance systems, which is about 6% of the
farm operation time. GPS guidance systems also reduced fuel use by 1,647
l (435 gal), which is about 6.3% of fuel use for the average farmer in the
sample. Based on these data and a conservative estimate of three dollars
per gallon of fuel, the use of GPS guidance systems can save an average
of US1,305 per farm in fuel costs alone.The use of autosteering systems
can save an average of 75h of peak farming time, resulting in a 5.81,479
per farm in fuel costs. Based on only the estimated fuel savings, GPS
guidance or autosteering systems can provide a positive return on invest-
ment within a year or two, depending on the brand name of the system
used. However, producers using these systems also report saving time. If
producers use hired labor, reduced machine operating hours can reduce the
need for hired labor. Otherwise, the time savings allow the reallocation of
family labor to other on-farm production activities, off-farm employment,
and leisure, which are high-value activities. A conservative estimate for
the value of an hour of labor saved is the hourly wage paid to displaced
hired labor, which averaged US$11.29 per hour nationally in January 2011
[12]. Thus, the monetized values of time saved for the average farm are
US733.85 and US851.27 for GPS guidance and autosteering systems,
respectively.
TABLE 3:
Average savings through GPS guidance systems
Operations
Time saved
(hours)
Time saved (%)
Fuel saved
(gallons)
Fuel saved (%)
Tillage
18.8
6.25
188
6.44
Planting
22.7
6.47
114
6.82
Spraying
17.5
7.11
86.6
8.00
Harvesting
6.00
4.33
46.7
4.00
Average total
65.0
6.04
435
6.32
