Home
Background information
RTK Integration with Other Agricultural Technologies

RTK Integration with Other Agricultural Technologies

RTK as the Foundation of Precision Farming

Think of precision farming as a building - RTK navigation is the foundation. Every other technology, sensors, drones, VRA controllers, all depends on accurate coordinates. When the position is off, the whole system breaks down: maps don't match reality, fertiliser is applied to the wrong zones, and season-over-season data layers can't be compared.

Our Nav-Agro and SmiLab-RTK agro-navigators deliver accuracy down to 2 cm in RTK FIX mode. That means a track laid last season overlaps with this season's pass within less than the width of a hand. This is exactly what's needed for soil maps, yield data and application rates to work together as one system rather than three separate datasets.

Farmers who have switched to RTK systems tell us the biggest change is not the pass-to-pass accuracy itself - it's the ability to build up field data year after year. The field starts to have a memory.

Soil Sensors and RTK: Georeferenced Data

Soil electrical conductivity sensors (EC sensors), pH probes and moisture sensors all collect data on the go. Without accurate coordinate tagging, those readings are just numbers. With RTK, every measurement gets a centimetre-precise address on the field map.

In practice: a tractor fitted with an EC sensor and our RTK receiver drives across the field. The software automatically builds a map showing where soil is heavy, sandy or at risk of drying out. That map then becomes the basis for management zones and variable-rate application tasks.

The RTK receiver sends coordinates via Bluetooth or RS232 directly to a tablet running agro-navigation software - no extra hardware needed. Our devices work with any Android device and are compatible with widely used farm monitoring applications.

RTK and Drone Integration in the Field

Drones handle tasks a tractor can't do well: crop scouting, multispectral imaging, spot spraying. RTK plays a role here too - both inside the drone itself (many agricultural UAVs carry a built-in RTK module) and in georeferencing the images they capture against field maps.

Multispectral drone imagery produces an NDVI index - a measure of crop health. When the image shares the same coordinate system as the soil map and machine track, the agronomist sees the full picture: low NDVI here, sandy EC patch in the same spot, below-average yield there last season. Three data layers overlap and point to one clear decision on top-dressing.

Without RTK georeferencing, a drone image is just a nice picture. With RTK, it becomes part of the decision-making system.

Variable Rate Fertiliser Application with RTK (VRA)

VRA (Variable Rate Application) adjusts the rate of fertiliser, seed or crop protection product based on which zone of the field the machine is currently in. Instead of a flat rate across the whole field, each zone gets exactly what it needs.

For VRA to work, you need a prescription map and accurate real-time positioning to execute it. RTK is indispensable here: it tells the spreader or sprayer controller exactly which zone the machine is in and switches the application rate accordingly.

Based on our data and feedback from partner farms, VRA paired with RTK cuts fertiliser costs by 8-20% without reducing yields. On fields with pronounced soil variability - maize, sunflower and wheat growing on mixed sandy and clay patches - the effect is even more pronounced.

Technology	RTK's Role	Without RTK	With RTK
Soil sensors (EC, pH)	Georeference data to coordinates	Readings with no spatial context	Accurate soil map, management zones
Drones / UAVs	Georeference imagery	Images don't align with field maps	NDVI overlays soil data and machine track
VRA (spreader, sprayer)	Execute prescription map	Rate shifts by 10-15 m from target zone	Rate changes precisely in the correct zone
Yield map	Georeference combine data	5-15 m positional error between seasons	Accurate map, reliable season comparison

Yield Maps and Moisture Sensors

A modern combine can carry both a yield sensor and a grain moisture sensor. These instruments record how much grain passes through the thresher and at what moisture level - every few seconds. Combined with a position from the RTK receiver, this data produces a yield map with 2-5 metre resolution.

The following season, the agronomist overlays the new map on the old one. Where yield drops two seasons in a row, there is a problem to investigate: nutrient deficiency, compaction, shading or something else. Without accurate RTK georeferencing, these maps drift 10-15 metres between seasons and meaningful comparison becomes impossible.

We recommend using the same RTK receiver at harvest as during seeding - this keeps all maps in one coordinate system and makes season-over-season comparison reliable.

Integration Results: Numbers and Outcomes

The figures below reflect indicative results observed across farms that have deployed RTK alongside complementary technologies. Some are confirmed outcomes; others are averaged estimates based on farmer feedback.

Metric	Without RTK Integration	With RTK Integration
Overlap during seeding	up to 15%	8-12% fewer overlaps
Fertiliser savings (VRA)	Flat rate across whole field	8-20% reduction in fertiliser costs
Yield map accuracy	5-15 m drift between seasons	Less than 3 cm drift
Yield increase	-	+3-10% (with stabilised input rates)
Overall resource savings	-	3-7% across the whole farm

The key takeaway is straightforward: RTK navigation delivers value from day one. But the real return on a precision farming system comes when the agro-navigator is no longer a standalone device - it's part of a connected digital farm. Sensors, drones, VRA controllers and yield maps all work at full capacity when accurate positioning sits at the core.

Our Nav-Agro RTK and SmiLab-RTK receivers support NMEA output via Bluetooth and RS232, ensuring compatibility with widely used agro-navigation software and VRA controllers - no additional integration costs required.