Using technology from a sensor made by Fliegl, Austrian farm machinery company Pöttinger has debuted a GPS beacon designed to track the location of pulled farm implements, detect whether or not they are working, and even save maps of their progress. The technology in the PötPro Guide is surprisingly basic. GPS and 3D sensors inside the small… Read More
Category: GPS
Less than two years after unveiling an autonomous concept tractor, Case IH has announced it will begin testing autonomous technology in-field. The pilot program, according to Brad Lukac director, autonomous vehicles for CASE IH, is about trying to understand customer usability, and what value proposition such technologies offer, all while gaining valuable customer feedback. The program… Read More
Canadians across the country are celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday in unique ways. Some of you may have enjoyed a local Canadian wine, increased your maple syrup consumption or planned a special Canadian holiday, but how about planting a corn maze that showcases your pride in Canada from the sky? Kucera Farm Supply Limited, a family… Read More
Have you ever looked across the road at the neighbour and thought, “Man, he has a lot of equipment for the acres he farms!” I think that conversation must be happening more than we think because the USDA has reported that corn planting is 71% complete in the U.S. That’s 1% ahead of the long-term… Read More
Precision agriculture counts on not only data collection, but also on data management as well. And while a new survey of 700 farmers across Canada shows most producers are indeed gathering agronomic data electronically, many are not yet using that data for management purposes. The survey, which took place over three weeks in November and… Read More
Farmers and ranchers have always been interested in technology, especially if it enhances profitability. The rate of change of products and services coming to market is extremely fast. Silicon Valley and traditional agriculture businesses such as John Deere and Bayer are all trying to establish their footholds in the future of digital farming. At the… Read More
Will drones or satellites be the way for precision agriculture in the future? Right now it looks like both have a place but debate exists whether that be the case in the future. Planet plans to have a say in how satellites could become the dominant player in imagery for farmers around the world. At… Read More
Similar to how auto-steer has allowed farmers to focus on other tasks rather than steering while crawling up or down a field, a new California company is testing self-driving semis to make trucking safer and allow drivers to do something else between exits on the interstate. Otto, which announced its existence last week, was founded by… Read More
Three engineering students from the University of Regina won an international ag robotics competition in Indiana last week. The agBOT Challenge saw teams compete to build the most efficient, unmanned seeder, capable of planting two different varieties in half-mile passes while maintaining control and providing data back to the operator (see the lengthy and impressive list of expectations… Read More
Advancements in farm technology often come from major investments in research and development by large companies, but there are still cases where farmer ingenuity is part of developing something new. Matt Reimer, a young farmer from Killarney, Manitoba, has received plenty of attention after posting videos on YouTube last summer of his work automating a John Deere… Read More
Tractors keep getting bigger and bigger, but with the advent of automation, do we really need 500 HP tractors? Ohio State University (OSU) professor Scott Shearer doesn’t think so. He believes future tractors will get a lot smaller and become autonomous units that make farm soils more productive. “The current trend to increasingly larger equipment… Read More
The line between what’s a traditional clunky tractor monitor and a user-friendly household tablet is disappearing, as evidenced by Trimble’s latest version of its TMX-2050 display. On the market for two years, Trimble introduced several upgrades to the Android-based 12-inch touch screen unit earlier this year, explains TJ Schulte in the video below, filmed at… Read More
Harvest is wrapped up and your yield monitor has accumulated another year of data. What should you do with it? In this episode of Corn School, AGRIS Co-operative agronomist Dale Cowan shares his thoughts on how you can use that yield data to guide soil sampling and create management zones in your fields. Many farmers… Read More
It might take a few years or decades to become common on North American farms, but the day tractors drive themselves in the field has arrived. In this TechTour episode, we meet the Greenbot, a driverless 100hp tractor made and sold in the Netherlands by Precision Makers. It debuted at Agritechnica ’15 in Germany earlier this… Read More
The yield monitor is still the best barometer when it comes to assessing the value of crop inputs and agronomic strategies, but UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) are proving to be an important tool for in-season measurement and assessment of cropping strategies. Not Just Toys: Adding Value with UAVs Chad Colby’s Top Tips for Integrating UAV… Read More