Australia’s farmers call for backup plan after GPS tractor-steering system fails

A satellite that issues a correction signal to most Australian farm machinery went down this week, leaving farmers in the lurch

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Mobile internet coverage could help farmers whose tractors stalled due to a satellite outage this week - but phone coverage is so patchy in regional Australia that many will remain stalled.

The British-owned Inmarsat I-4 F1 satellite, which supports the GPS systems in agricultural machinery from brands including Ag Leader, Case, John Deere, and Trimble in the Asia-Pacific, was down for 12 hours this week, causing a flurry of concerned calls from Australian farmers. Most modern tractors rely on GPS for automatic steering. The satellite enables guided accuracy and self-drive within two centimetres for tasks such as sowing crops.

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Emily Middleton is a journalist in Gilgandra, NSW