Evaluation of Travel Tracks of Tractor-drawn Manure Spreaders Using RTK-GPS

The causes for the differences in compost application rate in a field using two types of manure spreaders are investigated and clarified by measuring the travel tracks of the manure spreaders using a RTK-GPS system. The travel speed of each application pass was not constant, and the variation ranged from 0.9-1.6 m/s. The standard deviation of an individual track distance did not significantly change. However, there was a maximum change of 2.5 m between each track distance in the test field. The results show the differences in compost application rate are due to the changes in travel speeds and track distances.