Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

GPS Corrections and Their General Uses

After many years of precision agricultural use, many questions still exist of what is the correct correction for each operation.  I have listed the corrections available and a brief description of their uses.

Wide Area Augmentation Signal (WAAS) –

Accuracy: < 6-8”

Initialization/Convergence: Standard*

This free service provides performance suitable for agriculture applications in which accuracy and repeatability are not of the highest concern. It's most popular for broadacre crop spraying and tillage applications.

Omnistar XP-

Accuracy: 3-5" (8-12 cm)

Initialization/Convergence: Standard*

An OmniSTAR® service for high-performance broadacre spraying and land-tillage applications in which the vehicle will be operating in areas with open views of the sky at all times. OmniSTAR XP requires a convergence period at startup.  Omnistar XP is most popular for boom shutoff systems on sprayers and tillage applications.

Omnistar HP-

Accuracy: 2-4" (5-10 cm)

Initialization/Convergence: Standard*

An OmniSTAR® service suitable for high-performance broadacre seeding, spraying, and harvesting applications in which the vehicle will be operating in areas with open views of the sky at all times. OmniSTAR HP requires a convergence period at startup.  Omnistar HP is popular for broadacre planting, spraying and harvest solutions.

Trimble’s RTX-

Accuracy: 1.5" (3.8 cm)

Initialization/Convergence: Standard*

The new Trimble® CenterPoint™ RTX™ Correction Service delivers GNSS enabled, repeatable 1.5" (3.8 cm) corrections via satellite or cellular network directly to your receiver anywhere in the world. CenterPoint RTX works with the built-in GNSS receiver in your existing Trimble FmX® integrated display, CFX-750™ display, or AG-372 GNSS receiver.  Trimble’s RTX is becoming increasingly popular with cash crop planting using row controls, side dressing, no-till operations, small veggie crops where size does not dictate RTK investments.

RTK Base or Cellular-

Accuracy: < 1" (2.5 cm)

Initialization/Convergence: < 1 minute

CenterPoint RTK is well suited for row-crop planting, strip tilling, land leveling and other water management applications in which the best horizontal and vertical accuracy is required.  Repeatable accuracy is available anywhere, with cellular/base station systems.  Advancements in base station technologies now allow for no line of sight restrictions, and distances up to 20 Miles.

Agricultural GPS systems are no longer about straight lines, it is about intregration into your operation, your future plans and increasing profitability.  Data acquisition, yield mapping and variable rate application are all becoming main stream to today’s farmers.  Without properly installation, calibrated and training you will not be able to maximize your investment.  Ensure you make the right choices, your yields will thank you.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul Smith is the owner of Northern Equipment Solutions and based in Central Ontario, Canada. Providing Quality Potato Equipment, Precision Agriculture and Other Advanced Equipment, Northern Equipment Solutions ensures that your profits and yields are maximized. www.northernequipment.ca or sales@northernequipment.ca

Views: 439

Comment

You need to be a member of Ontario Agriculture to add comments!

Join Ontario Agriculture

Comment by Iain Robson on January 2, 2013 at 11:55pm

Awesome, thanks very much Paul.

I will look into it. For a small initial investment, it could improve yields, which would be huge.

Also, the new website looks great.

Comment by Paul Smith on January 2, 2013 at 5:52pm

Generally WAAS is a good starting point for any precision purchase, it can cover some of your less accurate requirements on the farm including some planting, sprayering, manure application and fertilizer spreading all areas where accuracy will have very positive returns in quality and reduced costs of inputs

Comment by Iain Robson on January 2, 2013 at 2:40am

Great post Paul. 

Which one would you suggest for a starter gps?

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

Canada’s Minister of AI and Digital Innovation visits EMILI’s Innovation Farms

The Honourable Evan Solomon, Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation visited EMILI’s Innovation Farms to discuss AI innovation and get a firsthand look at the important work taking place to advance agtech in Manitoba. “This week in Winnipeg was about practical AI and Manitoba’s place in Canada’s innovation economy,” he said in a post on LinkedIn after the event. “I visited Manitoba Innovates and EMILI Innovation Farms to see how Manitoba is supporting startups, agtech and real-world technology adoption.” EMILI is very proud of the work taking place in Manitoba to drive agriculture innovation, and how the impact is stretching across Canada with the recent launch of the AIVA Network which EMILI is a co-founder of. It was an honour to share details and answer questions about 30+ projects being tested and demonstrated on EMILI’s Innovation Farms this season, including Verge Ag, Cellar Insights, Agi3, Geco Strategic Weed Management, Miraterra, GrainFox, and mor

This is Agriculture: Customer success sales and marketing lead

After entering university to play volleyball, Courtney Kowk found her way into the agriculture program and continued her studies with a masters degree in agricultural economics. While her work experience started during university, her connection to agriculture began with a love for animals and a connection to her grandparents in Saskatchewan. She continued into a role at Cellar Insights, which allowed her to work closely with producer-focused innovation. Where did you grow up? Was it an agriculture or urban environment? I grew up in East St. Paul, a small municipality just outside of Winnipeg. It wasn’t a farming community, but it also wasn’t fully urban, so I got a bit of both worlds growing up. What was your dream job when you were a kid? Thinking back, I don’t know if I ever really had a dream job. I don’t think I spent much time thinking about growing up or being an adult, I was pretty happy just being a kid and not having to worry about those responsibilities yet. At one point

Insurance companies slammed with hail damage claims from summer storms

Member companies of the Canadian Crop Hail Association (CCHA) say they're processing more than 2,000 claims of crop damage across the Prairies. Members of the Canadian Crop Hail Association include Co-operative Hail Insurance Company, Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation, Palliser Insurance Company Ltd, Saskatchewan Municipal Hail Insurance and Rain and Hail Insurance Services. The claims stem from storms that occurred June 22nd to July 5th. During that time, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba were hit with hail from golf-ball size to baseball size, along with wind and large amounts of rain. President of CCHA Tyson Ryhorchuk says a large area of Saskatchewan was hit by consecutive days of hail. "Alberta and Manitoba are also fairly heavy, especially in southwest Manitoba," said Ryhorchuk. "But there was that large storm that everyone's been hearing about that stretched basically from Calgary all the way down to Swift Current that had a pretty big swath of hail that came thro

Unity's Field of Dreams gets boost from BASF’s Field of Purpose

The Cardinal Diamond Revitalization Project will soon be transitioning into its third year of work, and this year the project received some help from BASF. For the past few years, the committee has had the opportunity to fund the project alongside the North West Terminal, with the sale of the grain being used to pay for the diamond renovations. Several farmers in the area have continued to help with these fundraising efforts following the sale of the local grain terminal, and committee president Cory Wildeman said the group learned about the Field of Purpose program after approaching BASF rep Layna Levorson for a donation of crop protection chemicals. The revitalization project received enough Sphaerex fungicide and Voraxor pre-seed to support 240 acres of soft white spring wheat through the BASF program, which has been operating under the Field of Purpose name for the past two years. Tabetha Boot, head of Communications & Industry Relations at BASF, said the company tries to support

New-Crop Soy Production Up, But Ending Stocks Steady

U.S. soybean ending stocks for 2026–27 were left unchanged in the USDA’s July supply and demand report on Friday, even after a larger planted area raised the expected size of the new-crop harvest. The USDA maintained its new-crop carryout forecast at 310 million bu, unchanged from June and well below the average pre-report trade expectation of roughly 332 million. New-crop soybean production was increased by 40 million bu to 4.475 billion, reflecting a 700,000-acre increase in planted area to 85.4 million acres. Harvested area was also raised by 700,000 acres to 84.4 million, while the national yield forecast remained unchanged at 53 bu/acre. However, the larger crop did not translate into an equal increase in total supply. Beginning stocks were lowered by 10 million bushels to 330 million, leaving total 2026–27 supplies up a net 30 million bushels at 4.83 billion. Meanwhile, the USDA also raised projected soybean exports by 30 million bu to 1.66 billion, citing increased supp

© 2026   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service