Shaped land for efficient water use
PTx Trimble introduces WM-FieldForm, its next-generation water solution for complex landforming, grading, leveling and terracing projects. The system is designed to help farmers control water movement into, out of and within fields, promising efficiency and crop yield benefits. WM-FieldForm provides single-scraper control for forming field surfaces into optimal shapes. It is a water management system […]
PTx Trimble introduces WM-FieldForm, its next-generation water solution for complex landforming, grading, leveling and terracing projects. The system is designed to help farmers control water movement into, out of and within fields, promising efficiency and crop yield benefits.
WM-FieldForm provides single-scraper control for forming field surfaces into optimal shapes. It is a water management system to leverage the Precision-IQ field application in the GFX-1260 display, allowing improved visualization and faster auto-design features. Additional enhancements are enabled through the NAV-900 guidance controller for improved GNSS accuracy and uptime.
“We know farmers are looking for products and tools that can help them do more with less, which is why we’ve invested in WM-FieldForm to continue our legacy of water management innovation and development,” said Andrew Sunderman, General Manager of PTx Trimble. “We offer new features, updated functionality, and even more importantly, to advance our water management technologies and make them more accessible to improve the accuracy and impact of land forming projects and optimize water distribution across fields.”
How it works
WM-FieldForm is a complete solution to improve and simplify the landforming process, from surveying and design to execution and verification.
Farmers can create topographic surveys of fields using high-precision RTK measurements with capabilities to create boundaries, interior points and calculations to report true acreage of survey areas using tools like the WM-Survey II app. Survey data can then be imported into WM-Form design software to create optimized field surface drainage designs employing Multiplane technology to define primary and cross slopes, prescribed orientation and preferred grades for more complex field requirements. Alternatively, survey data can remain with WM-FieldForm in the display to create best-fit surface designs using Autoplane technology. All of the software utilizes industry-leading dirt-balancing algorithms to minimize topsoil disturbance and straightforward workflows that are easy to master.
As part of the company’s commitment to its retrofit-first, mixed-fleet strategy, WM-FieldForm integrates with the GFX-1260 display and the NAV-900 guidance controller. Farmers simply need to add a NAV-900 and hydraulic machine controls to a bucket scraper. With NAV-900 compatibility, they have greater positioning accuracy and more uptime to get the work done.
What it means
With WM-FieldForm, farmers have the capabilities to form and maintain fields on their own, to minimize topsoil disturbances, and to adopt more sustainable farming practices in terms of water resources, regardless of the climate where they farm. For those in areas with excess moisture, that means reducing soil erosion, saving on inputs by limiting nutrient leaching and preventing yield losses from ponding. For farmers in dry climates, the system offers different benefits, including improved irrigation and reduced water runoff.
Regardless of water access, the WM-FieldForm system will offer improved yield performance and cost savings in the first year, due to more effective and efficient water use.
