Case Study: South Dakota farmer achieves inch-level planting accuracy and reduced downtime with Trimble CenterPoint RTX

South Dakota Farmer Streamlines Planting with Trimble® CenterPoint® RTX Correction Service

Michael Stevens, a corn and soybean farmer in southeast South Dakota who farms 1,800 acres with his father, had been an early adopter of GPS technology but faced serious reliability issues with his initial guidance system. Signal loss caused frequent downtime, inaccurate steering—especially in the evening—and 30–60 minute relock delays that disrupted planting and increased stress and wasted time.

In 2011 he switched to Trimble CenterPoint RTX delivered via the DCM-300 cellular modem, a GPS/GLONASS correction service that needs no base station and delivers about 1.5‑inch repeatable accuracy. The result: much faster signal lock (minutes with a two‑minute holdover), virtually no downtime (one signal loss in a year), elimination of skips and overlaps, tighter 22‑inch rows, reduced operator fatigue, more uniform emergence and higher yields, and measurable savings on seed and labor.

South Dakota

Michael Stevens

Farmer