Farm Report #7
Listing With the Beeline

"Listing" is the process of making furrows. In San Joaquin Valley cotton fields, it is done prior to the growing season so that fields can be irrigated before planting. This is called "pre-irrigation," although it should be called "pre-planting irrigation."

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The conventional way to list is to do it with a tractor equipped with a lister bar and markers. The lister bar is attached to the back of the tractor, with lister bottoms attached to it. A lister bottom looks like two moldboard plows connected to each other back to back. The markers are a pair of long arms attached to the lister bar, with a small disk or harrow tooth at each end to make marks in the field to show the driver where the next path through the field should be. Making straight furrows that are exactly the correct distance apart using markers is one of the most difficult jobs on the farm.

Now the Beeline Navigator, from Beeline Technologies, makes listing much easier and almost always perfect or nearly perfect, especially when compared to the usual results with conventional listing. The Beeline Navigator uses the global posititioning system (GPS) which uses signals from the GPS constellation of satellites to automate the tractor's steering. The Beeline system can be used to do many different field jobs, including listing, disking, ripping, landplaning, planting and cultivating, as well as other such jobs. For more information, see Beeline's web site at http://www.beelinenavigator.com/home.htm.

Other companies make competing systems that work similarly. The Beeline system seems to be the best one on the market at this time.

I used a John Deere 7810 tractor, equipped with the Beeline system, to do both disking and listing in my cotton fields this spring. It is an amazing technology that makes the most difficult farm job easy. All the driver needs to do is get the tractor within a few inches of where it should be at the start of each pass. The Beeline screen helps with this process. Once the tractor is close to where it should be, the driver can turn the control of the steering over to the Beeline system and it steers the tractor straight down the correct path. Even in rough conditions, it can keep the tractor within two inches of the correct path. In good conditions, it can keep the tractor within one inch of the correct path.

When doing less exacting jobs like disking or ripping, all the driver needs to do is get the tractor within a few feet of the correct path and pointed more or less in the right direction. The Beeline system can then take over and make perfect passes, every time.

Below is the tractor with the Beeline system. Note the white antenna on the roof and the lack of marker arms on the lister bar.

Shown below is the Beeline control system mounted in the tractor. The screen is a touch screen, but a regular keyboard can be connected to the computer (lower unit) for easier input of alpha/numeric information. Not shown are the hydraulic controls that take control of the tractor's steering system. The ">1.0" readout indicates that the tractor is just one inch from being on the exact correct course. That big red button on the right disengages the Beeline system and returns control of the tractor to the driver.

And here below is the view from the tractor of the furrows. Note that there are no marks for the driver to follow, nor is it necessary to make the furrow paths right next to each other. This makes turning the tractor easier as well as facilitating maneuvering around obstacles like power poles and irrigation valves.

The Beeline system can keep a log of each field, recording its exact position every few seconds. This log can later be downloaded to another computer. The log can be used to create an accurate contour map of the field. It can also show the exact acreage of the field.

Those of you who have done any listing or other farm tractor driving will realize what a breakthrough this technology is for jobs such as listing, planting and cultivating. The rest of you will just have to use your imagination, or take my word on it.

Have a comment? Send to rsturge@inreach.com

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