Accurate RTK guidance networks are starting to pop up all over the country – some installed by individual farming businesses, some by groups of farmers clubbing together and some by bigger enterprises such as machinery manufacturers.

But how many networks are out there, how are farmers accessing them and how much are they paying for them?

To find out independent precision farming consultant Ian Beecher-Jones is carrying out a global RTK survey. “RTK Networks are becoming more and more popular with farmers and I’m being asked on a regular basis how many networks are available to UK farmers and how network uptake in the UK compares to those in other parts of the world,” he says.

I hope to be able to provide a comparison on how farmers are receiving their RTK signal from country to country and the amount of land under RTK Network service provision.”

The survey can be completed online through the website rtknetworksurvey.com and anyone who is involved with an RTK Network is encouraged to complete it.

Power Farming will be publishing the findings as they come in.

What is RTK?

A Real Time Kinematic (RTK) network uses a local base station (Radio based) or GSM signal (Phone based) to provide the correction signal to monitor the drift of the rover (tractor or vehicle) in comparison to a base station to provide 2/3 cm repeatable accuracy.