Arro ™ targets growing need for Steering Assist^®

Aug 9, 2002 -- AgPRonline -- Westminster, CO. -- BEELINE Technologies, Inc. has strengthened its global market leadership position in steering assist technology with this week's announcement of the new BEELINE Arro ™ after-market product range.

Based on the Challenger Auto-Guide technology recently developed with Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) and AGCO (NYSE: AG) , Vice President American Operations Doug Merrill said "The BEELINE Arro ™ provides farmers with a cost effective and easy-to-use stepping stone into advanced steering assist for most commonly used types of self-propelled farm equipment.

The BEELINE Arro ™ is positioned to compliment the existing BEELINE Navigator^® line of products and provide an entry level option to wheat, corn and soybean growers for spraying, tillage and some planting operations. Product release is expected this fall and will be available from BEELINE's nationwide dealer network.

According to Mr. Merrill, the company is at the forefront of steering assist technology. "Five years ago, we launched the world's first commercial steering assist product. In that time our products have been responsible for truly remarkable productivity gains among our customers and the creation of a new global industry."

Rick Blankenship of Woolf Farming explains his adoption of BEELINE ™, "When we first made the decision to go with BEELINE ™, the main focus was getting the systems, using them for ground prep and listing, and then seeing the improved efficiencies. Now that we have realized efficiency gains of 20%, the next step will be to look at developing further ways to incorporate this technology into our farming operations."

Headliner agricultural companies are also realizing the benefits of hands-free steering in farm vehicles. "World leading tractor companies including AGCO have invested in our technology for inclusion in their range of farm machinery as a factory fitted option" Merrill said, "and we have recently announced a strategic alliance with Raven Industries, a leading precision ag equipment manufacturer."

The BEELINE Arro ™ is initially being released to support OmniSTAR VBS which is rated at a static accuracy of 24 inches and also supports the government's free WAAS signal rated at 40 inches static accuracy. On a 15 minute pass-to-pass basis, the accuracy of these signals improves by several orders of magnitude.

BEELINE's VP of Marketing John Hill said, "The Arro will provide significantly better ground accuracy than other steering systems that utilize WAAS or similar satellite based signals because of the line smoothing done by BEELINE's unique silicon gyro. The integration of GPS and gyro inertial technology is what gives BEELINE ™ its leadership in on-the-ground accuracy."

"We've made the Arro ™ so easy to use, that within a couple of minutes you'd be able to competently handle the system. It will also have the ability to work with the ISO CANbus system, which is becoming available in most new tractors," continued Hill.

BEELINE Technologies' sole business focus is agriculture, enabling the company to retain it's dominant market position and continue to set the benchmark in the agricultural steering assist market.

Mr Hill said this new development continues on the company's path of setting the pace for new agricultural practices which lead to time and savings efficiencies for all types of farming operations.

Farmers are able to clearly quantify the cost-benefit of BEELINE Steering Assist®. Scott Schmidt, an 8,500 acre farm manager found that in primary tillage alone he was making huge cost savings. "When we were discing without the BEELINE ™ we were getting about eight and a half acres an hour. With the BEELINE ™ we're getting 12 acres. That's just pure running time, it's not time for breaks or for service or moving from field to field, it's just measurements in the field. And in our chiseling there's an even greater increase. Without the BEELINE ™ we were just over four and a half acres an hour. With the BEELINE ™ we are getting over seven. Schmidt said. This equates to a 42% increase in area worked when discing and 53% when chiseling.

Since 1997 BEELINE ™ has performed cultural operations on more than 10 million acres globally in crops such as cotton, wheat, soybeans, sorghum, oats potatoes, corn, beans and miscellaneous vegetables.

The BEELINE Steering Assist^® concept was born in 1993 when Australian farmer Mike Mailler challenged his electrical engineer son, Robert, to design and build a system which would drive his self-propelled sprayer in a straight line. In 1997 Mike first used a controlled steering system and, based on its success, he moved to controlled traffic farming. Today he attributes a 40 per cent increase in production due to the new system.

BEELINE Technologies, Inc. is a privately held company, which through pioneering research has achieved global market leadership in GPS/INS# steering assist systems for self-propelled agricultural equipment. BEELINE ™ is proud to be a company founded by farmers, forging useful technology for farmers. BEELINE Technologies was established in 1994 and headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, with offices in Fresno, Calif. and Westminster, Colorado. For more information, visit http://www.BEELINEnavigator.com

Product Photo Caption:
Beauty and brains are combined in the ArroVT. The all new Arro by BEELINE - it's now even easier to move your BEELINE Steering Assist^®; between vehicles.

Note: High resolution new product photo and logos are available at the following website location:

http://www.ccimarketing.com/beeline/beeline.asp