500-ha Brazilian wheat farm runs 24/7 with AG993 and TAP™ PPP
Customer: Brazilian Wheat Farm
Zero base station infrastructure. Three tractors operating autonomously around the clock at ±2.5 cm pass-to-pass accuracy — with satellite-delivered PPP correction replacing traditional RTK networks.
Challenge
A 500-hectare wheat farm in Paraná state, Brazil, faced the classic tradeoff of precision agriculture economics: RTK accuracy required either a local base station (capital investment, maintenance, limited range) or a CORS network subscription (limited rural coverage, variable reliability). Neither option scaled economically across the farm's growing fleet of automated vehicles.
With wheat margins under pressure from global commodity cycles, the farm owner needed to extend operating hours, reduce input waste, and eliminate the 15-20% seed and fertilizer overlap typical of manually steered field operations.
Solution
The farm deployed three AG993 automated steering systems — one each on a John Deere 7215R tractor, a Case IH Steiger 540, and a New Holland T8.410 — with TAP™ PPP subscription for satellite-delivered corrections. Three aspects drove the choice:
- Base-free operation — TAP™ PPP's 6 geostationary satellites cover Brazil entirely, with no cellular or CORS dependency. Corrections work in the middle of fields where no 4G signal exists.
- Universal compatibility — AG993 retrofits onto any tractor brand via ISOBUS. No fleet lock-in to a single manufacturer's system.
- ±2.5 cm pass-to-pass — sufficient for broadcast seeding, fertilizing, and spraying at commodity wheat precision requirements.
Installation on each tractor took one day, including TAP™ PPP activation and calibration. Operators received a half-day training session on the touchscreen HMI; subsequent updates arrived over-the-air.
Results
During the 2025 wheat season, the three tractors operated autonomously for 18+ hours per day across planting, fertilizing, and spraying operations. Overlap dropped from ~15% to <2%, delivering a 15% reduction in combined seed, fertilizer, and fuel costs across the planted area.
The farm recovered the AG993 + TAP™ PPP investment within the first planting season. Night operations (previously avoided due to operator fatigue risk) now cover 40% of total field hours, compressing the planting window by 6 days and reducing weather-delay exposure.
“"Base-free satellite correction changed our economics. We stopped worrying about CORS coverage and just ran the tractors."”