A decision-support system for analyzing tractor guidance technology

A decision-support system was developed to assist small-scale producers, consultants, and extension agents with analyzing expected yield improvements, input cost savings, and equipment efficiency gains associated with global positioning system guidance on tractors using farm-specific details. Default parameters may be modified to perform partial budgeting and break-even analyses on a whole-farm basis. Findings suggest that this technology is profitable on as few as 49 ha, considered small-scale in the region, and under farm conditions assessed within. Further, tractor guidance is more feasible the more input-intensive the crops (e.g. cotton production vs. pasture maintenance) and the more expensive the equipment (e.g. using newer equipment). Changing input use affects greenhouse gas emissions that are reported as carbon equivalent footprint changes due to tractor guidance. For example, changing to tractors with lower horsepower to save on capital investment needs without changing the size of implement drawn, lowers fuel footprint as long as technically feasible and possible from a perspective of completing field work in a timely manner. Also, using manure instead of synthetic fertilizer, while economically advantageous, will increase the footprint of fertilizer applications given, among other factors, lesser nutrient density and thereby greater handling costs with manures. Quantifying these impacts across a whole farm is cumbersome since tractor guidance affects annual equipment use hours that are difficult to track and yet economically important. Hence, the decision support system was designed to capture farm-specific detail. The ability to perform whole-farm planning and sensitivity analyses in an automated, user-friendly, and flexible fashion is expected to increase technology adoption by small-scale producers.