How do farmers also have their fields plowed so straight for so far? Do they use GPS guidance somehow? And if they use some sort of tech, were they able to plow fields this straight back in the day?
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When you drive a tractor every day for 40years it’s easy to make straight lines as they are the most efficient way to plant
However new tech is coming every day ~2012 our family farm started with GPS tech it started with a light bar, telling you if your heading (degrees from north) was correct. Then we got proper GPS but it still required you to steer manually.
Then we got auto steer, this is a small motor that used a foam wheel to turn your steering wheel. Since most tractors use hydrostatic steering (using hydraulic cylinders to turn the wheels) most modern auto steering systems use a steering box that can turn the wheels itself. This system can keep us accurate up to 6inches
New systems keep track of almost every metric you can think of and make farming operations incredibly efficient. Most of the time the operator only needs to be there to turn around and ensure everything is operating properly. You select your field and the system already has your lines set up so you just select one, hit the button and go. This frees up operator time to monitor the other parts of the machine and fine tune calibrations
Unlike a car when you are planting you have a long distance between the hitch and the wheels of your implement and that helps take out any small variance along with skill from spending often up to 16hr days on a family farm in the tractor
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