Tractor, harvester IT comes of age
Over the last halfdecade, digital technology has appeared to be the “must-have” for tractor and machinery companies, who believe that bringing IT to tractors and farming will offer its customers huge benefits.
The updates also include the expansion of John Deere’s input product database, and Operation Centre’s ability to provide ‘estimated time remaining’ for tasks to be completed in real time, so will directly increase productivity for farmers through timesaving and management insights.
Until now, growers in New Zealand had to manually input their own product information into Operations Center, which led to errors in record keeping and ultimately unusable data. Now users can select products from more than 3,500 varieties, 5,000 chemicals, and almost 1,000 fertiliser products specific to New Zealand, ensuring accurate records— including product name, brand, and registration number.
The update will also ensure details of products to be used as part of digital work plan can be sent to machines wirelessly, ensuring that the right product is applied to the right field at the right rate.
As part of the upgrade, farmers will also receive updates on the efficiency of multiple machines in a paddock with the addition of the Estimated Time Remaining feature. This will allow managers to monitor progress and plan the next job with high levels of timeliness. The feature will update every five minutes, based on factors such as turn times and machine configuration.
In practice, it will allow a manager to see how long a job is going to take to complete, before forecasted rain might arrive or the time a supply tender needs to meet the sprayer. In addition, the system can also display idle time, with a counter until the machine starts moving again.
An improved map page in Operations Center will simplify a farmer’s experience of monitoring fieldwork and equipment from the office. The update will also allow selected partner organisations to view equipment information.
The new equipment management tool enables farmers to view and manage their entire fleet in one place, including machines, implements and precision ag devices.
