What farmers use Tractor GPS – Field Guidance for
Short answer
Phone GPS guidance is best for wide-implement work where a metre or two of accuracy is plenty: spraying, fertiliser spreading, slurry, topping and rolling, plus mapping and measuring fields. It is not accurate enough to match drill rows or plant row crops.
Updated · Oran Dynamics
Good fit, fair fit, poor fit
| Job | Fit with phone GPS | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Spraying (grassland, pasture, no tramlines) | Good | Wide booms; the coverage map shows missed strips |
| Fertiliser spreading | Good | Bout widths of 12–36 m make a metre or two of error small |
| Slurry | Good | You see exactly where you stopped before going for the next load |
| Mowing, topping, rolling | Good for topping and rolling | You can't see where you've rolled or topped; the map can |
| Measuring fields | Good | Draw a boundary on the map, or drive a field once and save it |
| Drilling and planting | Poor on the phone alone | Matching bouts needs far better than phone accuracy |
Why accuracy decides the job
The phone's GPS is good to a metre or two on newer dual-frequency iPhones, up to about 5 m on older ones. On a 24 m spreader that's a small fraction of a pass; on a 3 m drill it can be half a pass or more. Read how accurate a phone is before using it for anything where the passes must match exactly.
- GPS app for spraying fields Use your iPhone as sprayer guidance: straight lines at boom width, a live map of what you've sprayed, tank fills planned per job. What it does well, and where phone accuracy runs out.
- GPS for fertiliser spreading Use an iPhone as GPS guidance for fertiliser (fertilizer) spreading: lines at your bout width, a live map of what you've spread, and fills planned per job. Honest about accuracy.
- GPS for slurry spreading Use an iPhone to map slurry spreading: see exactly where the last load ran out, keep passes at bar width with a dribble bar or trailing shoe, and log area per job.
- GPS for mowing, topping and rolling Mowing, topping and rolling with iPhone GPS: a map of what you've covered when you can't see it on the ground, straight passes at your working width, and area logged per job.
- GPS for drilling and planting: an honest answer Phone GPS is accurate to a metre or two at best, which is not enough to match drill bouts or plant rows. Here's what Tractor GPS – Field Guidance can and can't do for drilling, and what to use instead.
- Measure field acres on your iPhone Measure a field's area in acres or hectares on your iPhone: draw the boundary on the satellite map, or drive the field once and save it. Area and perimeter, saved per field.
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