A hydraulic valve control unit is for an open center hydraulic system including a pump, a shunt valve and one or more actuator valves coupled to the shunt valve. Each actuator valve controls a corresponding actuator's position. The hydraulic valve control unit has a processor and a memory, containing instructions executable by the processor, and is configured to obtain user input data indicative of a desired actuator's position, determining opening area values of the one or more actuator valves using a predetermined relation dependent on the user input data, determining an opening area value of the shunt valve using the predetermined relation dependent on the user input data, controlling the shunt valve based on the opening area value of the shunt valve, and controlling the one or more actuator valves based on the opening area values of the one or more actuator valves.