The GFX-1060 and GFX-1260 have landed in New Zealand and are now in stock. Maximise your efficiency and ROI with these easy-to-use displays, offering:
– Simplicity – easy to install, use, and transfer between vehicles – Reliability – rugged construction to stand the test of time – Flexibility – high compatibility to work with your existing equipment – Scalability – the technology can easily adapt as your business changes and grows
With faster processing, greater memory and more storage capacity, these robust displays make handling even the most complex farm operations easy.
The GFX-1260™ display is Trimble Agriculture’s newest flagship 12-inch (30.5 cm) Android-based display, the ideal choice for controlling and executing all in-field work through the Precision-IQ™ field application interface.
The GFX-1060™ display is Trimble Agriculture’s latest 10-inch (25.6 cm) Android-based display, a great option for controlling and executing all in-field work, also equipped with the Precision-IQ™ interface.
Compare their specifications using the table below.
GFX-1060 Display
GFX-1260 Display
10 inch (12 cm) high-definition, color touchscreen display
12 inch (30.5 cm) high-definition, color touchscreen display
Android-based operating system
Android-based operating system
Precision-IQ firmware
Precision-IQ firmware
32 GB storage, 4 GB RAM
32 GB storage, 4 GB RAM
Optional ISOBUS task controller and universal terminal
Optional ISOBUS task controller and universal terminal
Control up to 4 input channels and 48 sections
Control up to 6 input channels and 48 sections
Connection for two USBs, 1 BRR port, 3 CAN ports and support for 2 external cameras, plus Bluetooth® and Wi-Fi connectivity
Connection for two USBs, 1 BRR port, 3 CAN ports and support for 2 external cameras, plus Bluetooth® and Wi-Fi connectivity
Customer story
Hear what a Trimble customer has to say about working with the new GFX displays.
In the current climate, it’s more important than ever to use all the tools in the toolbox to cut costs. There’s no better place to start than with more targeted management of your inputs, such as fertiliser. Whether you’re applying manually and need to figure out how to begin using Precision Ag to lower your costs or you’re a seasoned technology user looking to make some further improvements, it can be tough to know where to start.
Shane, one of our Trimble Hardware Specialists, ran us through the process of applying Precision Nutrient Management (PNM) to your farm operation. Here’s what he had to say.
What’s the leading issue you’re hearing out there right now that leads people to look at PNM?
Right now, it’s all about saving costs and making an impact on the bottom line. The rising cost of fertiliser is making PNM a no-brainer for most farmers and growers as our nutrients just get more expensive.
Where do I start if I’m thinking about using technology to lower input costs?
It all depends. If you’re starting from scratch, we’ll see what equipment, machinery, and data you have already. We walk our customers through the process with a phone call or site visit to see what’s there and what they’ll need to meet their goals.
An essential piece of equipment will be a Display, generally a GFX-750, and a Receiver such as the NAV-900 to get the functionality you need. An ISOBUS connection, such as in the Field IQ system will mean your equipment can talk to any tractor, so you’ll be able to use what you have already. This will allow you to start collecting data using the right Trimble Ag Software, which your local rep will talk you through too.
A lot of customers like to add autosteer into the mix to avoid overlap, which uses excess nutrients, to save costs as well. But again, it depends how much functionality you’re looking for.
If you’re already collecting data with Precision Ag technology, we’ll be looking into what you’re currently using, what data you’ve collected, and where the areas of improvement are. When we’ve decided what you need to meet your requirements, we’ll give you some figures for different options.
What happens once I’ve got the hardware I need?
Once we’ve agreed on what you’d like to go ahead with, we’ll get a Vantage NZ rep out to your farm to install the products and give you some training to show you how to use them. First, it’s about getting you started collecting the data and getting used to using the technology. Once you run with that for a few weeks, we often have another site visit to check in, see how things are going, and answer any questions.
At this point, customers usually feel pretty comfortable using their technology so it’s a good time to give you more training to take things to the next level.
How do I make the most of my hardware to better manage nutrient application?
Once you’re up and running, we can apply the right PNM strategy to save costs on inputs and make life easier.
Your ISOBUS connection will have your equipment talking to your Trimble hardware and software, automatically populating all your information onto the Trimble Display screen. This means you don’t have to have multiple screens for everything in the cab!
Autosteer will have the tractor automatically follow the GPS to make sure you’re applying nutrients precisely and avoid overapplication (and overpaying for nutrients).
By unlocking variable rate application, you’ll see a map that changes colour that shows exactly where nutrients are needed and not needed. Once unlocked, the technology will automatically apply nutrients in each paddock based on your map – meaning you’re only applying where it’s needed – reducing the amount of product you’re using and your risk of product leaching. We work with all nutrient management companies to enable variable rate application nationwide.
Vantage NZ can help with making variable rate application maps using a large range of data layers, including satellite imagery, grid or zonal soil sampling, and if required UAV imagery.
Really, we customise each PNM solution to the customer and their goals, so it’s all about having a chat with us to figure out what best suits your business from the outset.
Find out more about PNM here or get in touch with your local rep at Vantage NZ.
What’s the biggest issue we’re hearing in the agricultural industry at the moment? The truth is it’s three-fold:
Costs on inputs are rising – particularly on sprays, fertilizer, and seed
Nitrogen caps – our customers are adjusting their practice to meet caps on nutrient inputs to meet regulation
Productivity – improving ROI by ensuring the best yield of plant and pasture growth
Key to meeting all three of these challenges is precision nutrient management (PNM). To manage your nutrients efficiently – reduce input costs, meet environmental regulation, and increase yield – you first need some good data.
Getting your soil nutrients measured is an important step helping you to utilise PNM strategies. A soil test will tell you where your soil has high and low nutrient load, allowing you to use variable rate application to apply your nutrients only where they’re needed. This improves your environmental footprint while ensuring your farm is reaching its maximum potential.
High nutrient load
The areas of your paddocks that have high nutrient load already have enough nutrients to support upcoming crop or pasture growth. That means there’s no, or at least significantly reduced, need to spread fertiliser! Using a blanket rate application, you’d be spreading unneeded fertiliser, wasting money and risking a higher chance of over-application and leaching. Although it’s not required for your Farm Environmental Plan, minimising nutrient input helps your case in showing your commitment to meeting environmental regulations.
Low nutrient load
Areas of low nutrient load in your paddocks don’t have the required nutrients to support crop and pasture growth. This is a missed opportunity, as these areas aren’t reaching their full yield potential! When applying blanket rate fertiliser, these areas may not get enough nutrients – meaning they could be producing more toward your bottom line.
Precision Nutrient Management
Employing a PNM strategy allows you to reduce nutrient application in areas with high nutrient load and increase application in areas with low nutrient load. With this precision ag data, you can ensure that each area of the paddock is getting the nutrients it needs to ensure maximum yield. This keeps you as environmentally friendly as possible while maximising your ROI.
Most of our clients who utilise PNM pay for their soil tests in their lime savings alone – every other nutrient saving is an added bonus to your bottom line.
On top of that, it’s helpful to have precision data to add to your FEP, showing your compliance with environmental regulation.
Take the guesswork out of farm nutrient management and stop blanket rate application. Talk to the team at Vantage NZ today about Precision Nutrient Management.
Soil affects everything in agriculture – from seed to irrigation, fertiliser and herbicide use, to the ultimate goal of food and fibre growth. One thing we know about soil is that it’s variable – it changes from one point of your property to the next. That means knowing your soil’s unique properties across the farm is key to effectively managing your inputs and maximising profitability.
Just last month, Trimble announced significant improvements to its CenterPoint® RTX correction service, giving farmers the best of both worlds -the ease of use of the satellite-delivered corrections and RTK horizontal performance in less time.
There is Trimble RTX satellite beam transition happening in New Zealand, which will require you to change your frequency and baud rate on your GNSS receiver before September 30, 2021.
This affects all GNSS receivers using CenterPoint RTX, FieldPoint RTX, RangePoint RTX, ViewPoint RTX and xFill correction services.
We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this change, however it allows us to continue to make enhancements to our RTX correction services. The new satellite beam, RTXPA, will be available on August 2nd, 2021 with 8 weeks of dual operational period. This means the new satellite beam will run 8 weeks in parallel with the current RTXAP satellite beam.
We encourage you to change your settings as soon as the new satellite is available using the instructions you can find at
What is changing?
Trimble RTX is being moved to a new satellite beam, RTXPA. You will no longer receive correction data from the current RTXAP satellite (1539.8325 Mhz, 600 baud) after September 30, 2021. Please change the frequency and baud rate on your GNSS receivers to use the new RTXPA satellite (1545.2725MHz, 1200baud) as soon as possible after the second of August.
When is it happening?
The new RTXPA satellite beam will be available starting on August 2nd, 2021. The old RTXAP satellite will stop broadcasting correction data on September 30, 2021.
How will I continue to receive GNSS corrections after this change?
You need to manually input the frequency and baud rate for the RTXPA satellite beam:
● Within the Trimble RTX settings on your GNSS receiver, change the RTX satellite by manually entering the frequency and baud rate for the RTXPA satellite, shown in the table below.
● Instructions are available at trimble.com/sat Satellite Beam Frequency (MHz) Baud Rate (bps) RTXPA 1545.2725 1200
For more information:
Get in touch with any of our Vantage NZ Trimble Hardware Specialists
Russell Van de Laak: 021 874 622
Wade Riley: 021 874 602
Cam Burmeister: 027 261 0708
Shane Blampied: 027 380 5332
Daniel Magill: 027 547 4747
Or you can go directly to the Trimble Customer Care team who is standing by to help, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week:
The 2021 Zimmatic Trailblazer Sustainable Irrigation Awards is now on and entries are open!
The Awards celebrate excellence and recognises New Zealand farmers demonstrating leadership in water management and environmental stewardship. The judges are looking for steps taken to ensure sustainable water use on farm and an obvious passion for protecting one of our most precious natural resources. They had an overwhelming response from farmers last year in terms of entry numbers. This year, they would like to invite you to lend your support and help us build on this success.
Please help us spread the word through your own networks and encourage farmers in your area to enter themselves or nominate someone else that they think is deserving. You may even have friends or neighbours who are worthy of being nominated. If so, please put their name forward! This year’s competition is open to New Zealand farmers who irrigate more than 25ha.
The online entry and nomination process is simple, just visit the Awards website irrigationtrailblazer.com and click the red links on the home page to access the appropriate form. You can find out what impressed our judges last year in our two part leading submission summary; click here for Part 1 and Part 2. We hope this provides you with some insight into why the leading entrants from the 2020 awards caught the judging panels eye!
Servicing your soil moisture probe sites gives your telemetry the best chance at performing well – and is a service we offer! As seen below, these are common problems our technicians come across in the field; pugging, chewed cables, and blocked rain gauges. Whether you use your data to guide your decisions on farm or you simply rely on your data for auditing and compliance purposes, these issues won’t be helping your case.
Our soil moisture site service includes a rain gauge calibration, because over time being exposed to the elements, things can change. If you feel that your rain gauge data is out of line, we are more than happy to calibrate it for you. We also check over the quality of data your probe is creating to ensure that it is settled and as accurate as possible. Whilst on site, an assessment of the surroundings is taken to see whether moving the probe would be beneficial, that solar panels are facing north, no pugging has occurred, and that rain gauges aren’t blocked. An annual soil moisture report is then crafted up by one of the technicians for you to keep and reflect over for the coming months. Any further advice required will be also given.
An Electro-magnetic (EM) Survey is one of the key layers required on the precision farming journey. Precise location and understanding of soil types is a key piece of information in driving decisions around water use and nutrient placement. Not only can an EM Survey be used to reduce water inputs it can form the basis of other decisions related to plant health, production and nutrient uptake.
An EM Survey measures two soil profiles, one measuring the variability in the top 0-50 cm of soil and the other looking at variability in the top 0-125cm of your soil profile. Following a survey customers receive a comprehensive report outlining the findings in each survey depth. Depending on the variability arising from the survey, different management zones can be created to suit the final application. These zoned maps can then be used as the basis for variable rate irrigation (VRI) variable rate fertiliser, variable rate seeding and much more.
Figure 1. Top left is a shallow EM map and to the right of it a zoned map of that layer. Below is the same but for the deeper EM (0-125cm).
As well as collecting detailed soil information, and EM Survey also collected detailed topographic information. This data set in its own right is very useful and builds a deeper understanding of the role surface topographic changes play in water movement across the area. Coupled with the soil variability data itself this data can identify key areas for management changes to make a large difference to paddock, pasture, crop and nutrient management.
Figure 2. Specialist precision ag software generates water movement models based on the topography data.
Another simple but effective use for EM Survey data is to use it for placing soil moisture probes based on soil variability and slope to find your optimum site within each management zone. These sites can also be used as ground-truthing sites for water-holding capacity. From these your EM map can then be converted into a water-holding capacity map
EM Surveying information can be used for a myriad of uses, not all of which we’ve covered in this article. As soil is the basis for farming the land we work with, it makes sense to ‘dig a bit deeper’ and start our precision ag journey with a deeper understanding of our soils.
New to the Vantage portfolio is water-holding capacity assessments. These work alongide our EM Survey to aid in making more informed decisions. You can find out more about water-holding capacity assessments and what they add here.
To understand how EM Surveying can be used in your business, reach out to the Vantage NZ team to learn more.
From time to time we get the query: “my soil moisture sensor hasn’t responded to recent irrigation events, there must be something wrong with the sensor”.
While it is easy and natural to blame the sensor, the reason is often found in the field. There are physical reasons why a sensor may not register an event and the problem could be caused by a combination of these.
Figure 1. An irrigation event causing a neutral change in soil moisture content.
Canopy interception
The crop’s canopy will intercept some of the rainfall and/or irrigation water. Obviously, this will vary greatly from crop to crop and throughout the growth stages. It stands to reason that a mature crop of maize will intercept more water than freshly grazed pasture.
Much of the intercepted water will evaporate, but while it is sitting on the leaf it will cool the leaf and reduce the plant’s evapotranspiration rates.
Some of the intercepted water will trickle down the stem and enter the soil at the plant base, but not in sufficient quantities to register at the first sensor depth.
This scenario will look like a neutral response on the soil moisture graph (Figure 1). The irrigation event has not caused a soil moisture increase, but it did satisfy the plant’s evapotranspiration demand, so there is no water use for the day.
Application depth –less than daily water use and/or less than 0-100mm deficit
This tends to be a problem under pivots and fixed sprinklers. Daily irrigation of 4-5mm may not be enough to result in a significant change in soil moisture content at the first sensor depth (100mm). Firstly, some of the water will be intercepted. Secondly, the application may be less than the deficit present above the first sensor site, the water will infiltrate into the soil but may be absorbed in the top 50mm of soil. In this case the response to the irrigation event at the first sensor (100mm) will, at best be a “flattening” of the trace; soil moisture will remain at its current level.
Bypass-flow -dry soils and soil type
Bypass-flow occurs when water passes through the macro pores (or gaps between soil particles) and is not absorbed by the soil particles. Bypass-flow and soil type are linked; coarse texture soils have more macro pores, increasing the potential for bypass-flow.
Bypass-flow and soil moisture content are also linked. As a soil dries it can undergo slight structural changes which may result in increased macro-porosity. The effect of drying varies with soil type. A fine textured soil with higher clay content will tend to shrink; typically, at the surface of the soil resulting in opening of cracks in the soil. In coarser textured soils cracks will not develop, but individual aggregates will contract, increasing the soil’s macro-porosity.
Water passing through the macro pores, or cracks, may not be registered by the soil moisture sensor; firstly, because the slurry used when the sensor is installed will have fewer macro pores than the rest of the field; and secondly, because the water fails to ‘linger’ long enough to infiltrate and re-wet the dry slurry the sensor is installed in.
Lack of sensor response due to a dry soil profile is most common in crops where the readily available water is greatest, e.g. wheat or carrot seed.
It is less common in frequently irrigated crops where the readily available water is small, e.g. ryegrass pasture, vegetable seeds and peas.
Key management strategies
It is useful to think of the soil moisture sensor as any other tool on the farm; it needs to be maintained to work properly. The sensor responses will be more reliable if slurry is not allowed to dry out. Soil moisture sensor management strategies include:
Adjust application depth to overcome crop interception.
Adjust application depth to be greater than daily water use.
Adjust application depth to ensure irrigation water will replace the target deficit.
If the slurry has dried and sensor response is lost, this is resolved through long duration rainfall, rather than re-installation of sensors. Usually all sensors regain perfect contact with the soil over the winter months.
At Vantage NZ we are proud to supply you with high quality AquaCheck soil moisture sensors and neutron services and to back it up with a high standard of service and expertise. Give us a call to discuss your soil moisture monitoring requirements and get set up in good time for the 2021-22 season.
Article written by: Jane Robb, Customer Support Specialist
