Agricultural Engineers receive John Deere precision presentation

The recent online technical presentation, by agricultural machinery systems technology consultant Matthew Gilbert, to the Northern Ireland Branch of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers described how John Deere, as a major machinery manufacturer, supports its customers in achieving more efficient field operations by the use of precision farming technology.
Matthew Gilbert at Johnston Gilpin & Co LtdMatthew Gilbert at Johnston Gilpin & Co Ltd
Matthew Gilbert at Johnston Gilpin & Co Ltd

Matthew, a 2017 Harper Adams agriculture graduate, is now a technology specialist, with local John Deere dealership Johnston Gilpin.

His current role includes introducing customers to the new technology and providing in-field support to ensure that they get the best results from its use. It was also interesting to hear how he had spent a year working with a specialist team based in John Deere’s EU headquarters/factory site at Manheim in Germany, where around 37,000 of their machines are produced each year. A lot of his work there involved evaluation and development work for a new front-loader range, which is now a popular option for the latest 6M series tractors.

John Deere, as a company, is strongly committed to the application of precision agriculture technology across its product ranges. Its dealerships now routinely encourage its adoption as a vehicle brand selling point. The technology is now well advanced for use throughout the wide range of agricultural enterprise types from crops to livestock.

Precision agriculture systems use satellite guidance of field machinery and the assembly of electronic field maps based on information collected from crop yield and other field data. The maps become the guide for future seasons husbandry and controlled machinery operation. The AutoTrac system has three essential interlinked components, (1) The cab roof mounted StarFire 6000 dome, which receives the satellite and correction signals to continuously update the tractors exact position (2) the AutoTrac processor, which receives the signal and displays the position on the field map on the in-cab screen. (3) a steering guidance system to guide the tractor along its selected route on the field map. This prevents overlaps/missed areas when working in low visibility or even at night. As well as making life less stressful for the driver it reduces waste and improves crop outputs thereby saving money and protecting the environment. The most basic system can be supplied to guide the driver steering the tractor but upgrading is easy to AutoTrac, with the tractor steering itself, a popular option that has been available since 2002.

Today a high proportion of recent new John Deere tractors are supplied as AutoTrac Ready as customers increasingly recognise the value of hands-free-guidance. With the choice of several levels of StarFire correction signal, customers can select the system performance required, and upgrade to higher accuracy correction if desired. For maximum accuracy, a receiver can be fitted on an implement, providing automatic steering correction of implement drift when working across a side slope. A further more advanced version whereby the implement position is adjusted via its own steering system or side-shifting linkage is another option.

For those wishing to access the benefits of auto steer, you can utilise the John Deere AutoTrac Universal (ATU) system. A motorised steering wheel, this can be installed on most 12-volt tractors and machines providing they already have power steering. For seasonal work, the ATU components can be simply moved to another machine such as a self-propelled sprayer enabling the technology to be utilised throughout all periods of the growing season.

In addition, as all new John Deere GreenStar displays now provide variable rate functionality as standard, this means information from the electronic field maps can be used by the GreenStar task controller to automatically vary application rates from fertiliser spreaders, seed drills, or crop sprayers to match set target rates from a prescription map. John Deere are proud of the fact that their in-cab control display screen can support Section Control for up to 255 separate implement sections, e.g. providing maximum precision when using Individual Nozzle Control across the widest sprayer boom. A more recent development is turn compensation, which accounts for the fact that when the sprayer is turning the nozzles on the outside of the boom are travelling faster than those on the inside of the curve.

These technologies ensure an accurate and site-specific product application across crop in all field sizes and shapes with overall valuable cost savings in chemical or fertiliser inputs. Increasingly, a lot of implement functions are now controlled by messages exchanged through the tractors own ISObus system. Most of the current range of John Deere tractors are already ISObus ready. This is the standard international protocol for managing all of the communications between tractors, software and equipment from major manufacturers through the single control screen in the tractor cab. The agricultural machinery industry is making good progress (through ISOXML) in sharing the technology so that all main brands will operate using the same information on a single display.

JDLink, a modular telematics gateway which allows the live and recorded performance information, as on the cab display, also to be read in a farm office or dealership, provides useful insights for customer and dealer alike.

For dealers, if customer consent is provided, this communication can now also be used for remote fault diagnosis and advance warning of potential problems. Service Adviser Remote detection can be immediate without the need for a field visit. For farmers, wireless data transfer from JDLink provides unrivalled connectivity and ease of access to job documentation.

The facility of “AutoSetup” will be available soon, using JDLink to further streamline job management. It enables task, field and machine setup information to be sent wirelessly to a machine, with completed work data wirelessly stored in a cloud-based system, which is free of charge to use.

To gain insights from the productivity of your land, and analyse crop quality, the Harvest Lab 3000 is a near-infra-red sensor, placed by the crop stream of a John Deere self-propelled forage harvester to continuously measure crop quality in terms of dry matter, crude protein, crude fibre, starch and ash. This provides up-to-date information when choosing settings such as preferred chop length or additive application rate. The system can also assess overall actual crop yield, with this information now being used by some contactors as a basis for costing their service in place of the traditional per-acre methods. The assembled data can also be added to the electronic maps to guide ongoing field management decisions such as reseeding and fertiliser policy. The Harvest Lab unit can also be taken from the harvester and used, as a standalone unit, throughout the feeding season to monitor fodder quality.

Another grassland related application is nutrient sensing in the growing crop. Using a tractor mounted sensor to measure nitrogen content, and other field map data, such as soil sample results; the fertiliser application rate can be continuously adjusted on the move. Overall soil nutrient status is now subject to official statutory regulation with records kept.

This includes the timing and amount of slurry applied. As with fertiliser, it is now possible to monitor the slurry nutrient content and adjust the application rate on the move to satisfy these requirements. The MCS (manure sensing system) controller, which is also Harvest Lab 3000 based, on the tanker can regulate the application rate through a combination of automatic adjustment of the tanker’s discharge rate and forward travel speed in the field.

In recognition of its value in providing more accurate control of nutrient application rates, precision farming equipment such as the Slurry Flow Monitoring System used in connection with GPS / RTK guidance is eligible for grant support within the current Farm Business

Investment Scheme.

The real cost of acquiring all the above-mentioned systems is reducing with increasing sales adoption and new technical developments with improved performance. Customers are now increasingly confident and skilled in using them successfully.

The future?

Cab-less driverless tractors and other field machines will operate remotely. The use of electrical power systems will be used more on machine drives. Field management observation using drones will be routine as will automated individual plant spot treatments for row crops. The ability to improve soil management, reduce pesticide application, minimise pollution and protect the natural environment depends on controlling inputs in an informed way as well as having the records to prove it is a welcome development. The tone of recent official press reports of how the criteria for future support of farming in the UK will operate is similar.

The Precision Farming technology systems, now available and being advanced by John Deere and others are timely and well equipped to support farmers in this process.

As always, a good presentation resulted in a further lively discussion around the topics before the chairman thanked Matthew for his excellent presentation and wished him well in his career. More detail on the John Deere products referred to above is available online at www.johnstongilpin.co.uk