Can someone explain to me what a headland is in terms of the setting for FS?

[Star Lord]

My son is going to school for Agronomy but he's been lazy to respond to my questions so figured I would ask the Pros here.

I get that headlands are the outskirts of the field and they are generally not the same geometric-wise than the insides of the fields, but what are they used for in setting up AI or GPS farming. I read the blurb from the Devs but I am still not getting the setting and what it is useful for here.

Traditionally when I mow my yard, I do not do it in rows. I basically go around in a circle/rectangle and also do that here when farming. For mowing, I've done that as long as I've been a kid and it tends to work here; I just turn wide at the end if I need to.

When I drive beet trucks in the fall, I watch the harvester start on the outside first and then go into the middle of the field., And when they do it, they start at the middle and then either pick the left or right side of the field and harvest their way from that middle, finish the row, go to the outside, do that part, then go back to the middle. Then they do the other side of the field.

On a different note, I did a contract for harvesting beets but the harvester I got only pulled one row of beets at a time vs. a harvester the farmers I work for use. That one did multiple rows. Needless to say, I did about an hour's worth of farming and cancelled the contact because I did only 30% of the field in that time. However, I think that harvester must have also had a rotobeeter built in because I didn't see the beets with their stems off. Needless to say I don't think I'll be taking any more contracts later on.

[Knottypine]

Basically if you have crop destruction enabled, you don't want to drive over crops damaging them. It also helps for equipment turning around, if they working straight towards the edges, there may be insufficient space to comfortably turn around. When harvesting and doing the headlands first, it solves these issues.

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable can provide a better answer.

[Lord Nighthawk]

Depending on what work you do you either do the inner parts of the field first or the outer areas. Technically the headlands is the space you have for turning your vehicle with attached equipment - important if the field border is filled with trees and bushes.

When seeding, cultivating or stuff like that you do the inner area of the field first and turn your vehicle at the headland. When done you do the headland last. You do that cause if you do it the other way around you would always drive into the area you already have done and compress the soil there again.

When harvesting you for sure won´t start in the center as you would damage/flatten your crops, here you start with harvesting the headland first getting enough space for turning safely when doing the fields inner parts.

[lclark]

If you like cutting in a circle, you can increase the number of headlands to it's max, which leaves very little in the center.

[Star Lord]

Thanks all...this makes much more sense now. @Lord Nighthawk, your last section, you mention the part about why you don't harvest in the center first. Is this because doing it on the outside affords less damage? I don't quite understand as you are still driving with the tractor in front.

Ahhh, I think I got it now. Ok, I was picturing harvesting just the borders on the sides of the field, but you want to do all of the outside rows first, basically do lines N, S, E, and W. So doing it this way affords less dmg to the crops because you now can drive the outside of the field because you've done a row or two all around the field itself?

I think I got it now. Yes, the beet field I did had some trees on the southern edge, so trying to turn there was darn near impossible. to do just rows.

[★REM★]

Headlands are the first rings of the outer border of a fiield. so 2 headlands means the AI will make the "circumference" of the field twice (from outer to inner) before move to straight lines up / down to complete the field.

[Star Lord]

Originally posted by ★REM★:

Headlands are the first rings of the outer border of a fiield. so 2 headlands means the AI will make the "circumference" of the field twice (from outer to inner) before move to straight lines up / down to complete the field.

Got it. Rings is a better term for what I am now thinking. Ok. this makes perfect sense. Thanks all!

[ShutEye_DK]

So many people used to the old up'n'down workers. Kinda funny :)

[LakeLife951]

I know this is old, but maybe will help someone else down the road.

As others have said it depends on what you are doing with that field and equipment at that moment in time.

Headlands are the outside areas of the field, the rings / border / perimeter.

They are used for turning a piece of equipment during harvesting and planting.

If you are seeding / planting / plowing*** / cultivating* / mowing (set to making windrows) / spraying / rolling* / making windrows / bailing** you would want to do the inner part of the field first. Meaning do the up and down lines of the field, using the headlands to turn around.

It is also easier to do the first up and down line at the edge of the field, and when you turn around, skip the next row and go one row over. So you would do row 1, 3, 5 etc.

This makes it easier to turn without binding the equipment. Just like in real life. This also allows you, when you get to last up and down row, to work your way back to where your starting point is.

When you get back to where you started, then you start on the inner most headland and do that, then work to and outermost at the edge of the field.

When you finish the field, you SHOULD be at the point you started, usually the entrance road or gate to the field.

*When cultivating or rolling it doesn’t really matter, but makes the field look nicer when done.

**I also said bailing, if you do the up down rows first, then you are not running into bails when turning. They are left in the inside of the field and out of your way.

***Plowing, plows are usually directional and leave an open row to one side. Don’t skip rows with these. If you use GPS and you have an offset, your steering line can flip flop quickly from the left or the right side of the line, pay attention if you did one row with the line on the left and then the next on the right, there will be a gap on your row.

When it comes to rolling / harvesting / mowing (without it set to make windrows) / tedding, and other things I am probably forgetting…

You can probably find it easier to to the headlands first, especially if you have a crop in the field, as doing up down rows will make you turn around in the headlands over and over for each row and you will everything you turn around on.

Do the headlands first, then start at the up down rows.

Again you can do the first row and then skip every other row.

If using auto steer or AI, I find it easier to make the tool width about 2 or 3 smaller than it is auto set to. I also add one additional headland to the auto set to give more room to turn around, sometimes if it is a very large tool or a very small tool, I will do 2 extra headlands because I need the room, if it’s for a small tool, the extra room allows you not have to turn so tight.