Large-scale Werribee South horticulturalist Amo Mason, Victoria, is a noted GPS steering enthusiast with four tractors sporting AutoFarm receivers but he's also using GPS for 2cm precision height control of his land plane.
The result is perfectly graded beds with water quickly draining away in the aftermath of excessive falls.
"Good drainage is really important," Mr Mason says.
"You can see the water running out and away with no pooling."
Growing three crops a year of lettuce, broccoli and fennel on an aggregation of 101ha (250 acres), the total area will amount to 141ha (350 acres) when another property, some 40km away is fully-developed.
Trading as Mason Brothers, and supplying markets throughout Australia, Mr Mason bought his first GPS unit four years ago.
A GPS-Ag unit, it was used only for steering for the first 12 months before its levelling capabilities were put into effect with a trip to the US, to better understand data logging technology, proving especially worthwhile.
"It's pretty simple really," Mr Mason said.
Essentially, auto levelling utilises the same processing box and monitor in the cabin but requires a separate receiver dish on the grader.
The signal comes from a tower on Mason Brothers' shed.
"First we pop a card into the processor and then drive the tractor up and down the paddock every 12m, recording heights every second," he said.
"The card then goes in the computer and the AutoFarm programme plots the heights on a grid and displays them as red, green or blue.
"Green is 'on grade', red is 'low' and blue is 'high' - so it's very easy to see where you need to be cutting and dumping.
"That's followed up with fine-tuning to get a constant grade across the block."
Mr Mason has also used GPS height guidance on dam work with "excellent results" but precision steering is still the main application for GPS guidance at Mason Brothers.
All four tractors are used for 2cm steering accuracy while only two have auto-levelling capability.
The enterprise's right-hand man, Nick Pratt, is a big fan of auto-steering, being responsible for all land preparation and bed forming.
Three beds at a time are formed using a 6m wide home-built machine that is mounted behind a 225kW (300hp) New Holland TG 285 tractor.
A matching 6m wide rotary hoe completes the system.
The bed former's combination of discs mounted at acute angles are said to produce perfectly formed beds.
Small discs on each side toss soil against the system's sprinkler lines with the outer wings folding up hydraulically for transport.
Importantly, the accuracy of the AutoFarm unit is such that it can be accurately programmed to clear the property’s sprinkler risers.
"We can drive faster, never damage any sprinklers and feel of a hell of a lot better at knock off time," Mr Pratt said.
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