Planning for the Harvest Season While Building a Legacy with Ag Technology
October 1, 2024 
Experienced agronomists rely on an array of precision ag tools to navigate the busy harvest season while still enjoying the micro-moments with their family. Photo: RDO Equipment Co.
RDO Equipment Co.’s account managers or customer service advisors periodically ask me to check on a producer’s operation through a “buddy seat meet and greet,” where I discuss agronomic or equipment goals with a producer during a ride-along in their tractor cab. What entertained me during one such buddy seat discussion was not an agronomy discussion but when a father carefully watched his kid’s first few passes in his first time in the combine seat. While staying close to the combine, the farmer periodically pressed the CB radio’s button.
**chirp** “You can go faster.”
**chirp** “Watch the back end of the wagon and make sure it is full.”
Those milliseconds of interaction between a father and his child hit me like a ton of bricks: Sometimes, we are so hyper-focused on the results and harvest deadlines that we forget moments like trusting the kid or also letting grandpa take his favorite combine through the first passes of the season in his favorite field are the legacy-making memories. These pride-instilling, micro-moments happen when we first take the time to set up the team for a safe and efficient harvesting season by adding a few precision ag technology tools.
Where to Start? Gathering Intelligence
We all know feelings can’t change facts, but lacking facts can fuel an emotional spiral. Besides the pre-harvest check of a combine, the first few passes should be treated like a recon mission: gather helpful info to create a better plan of attack. With the Bushel Plus SmartPan System — a calibration tool that measures harvest loss — I’ve heard from producers that their ground-truth process becomes easier because they can verify the amount of possible loss through remote sensor data and on-site comparison.
The SmartPan System includes two magnetic drop pans (in wide or narrow sizes) with a carrier, a digital field scale, and access to the Bushel Plus SmartDrop app. The system collects a grain sample while the app conducts an industry-standard loss analysis so we can view any possible loss issues before completing the last combine pass. After gathering this info in the first few passes, we can re-calibrate the combine to prevent unnecessary losses and understand this field’s estimated yield. With the Bushel Plus System, remotely checking for loss safe a distance away from the combine after the first few passes has never been easier.
The Bushel SmartPan System unlocks the key to harvesting success: the ability to adjust the concaves, blowers, and threshing units to optimize performance based on real-time data. While digging in the ground is fun and free, the efficiency of ensuring that the combine is set correctly, quickly and without missing information is worth the investment.
Prepare for Success with a Farm Management System
Recently, my algorithm served a grain cart operator video from Lesley Kelly’s “High Heels and Canola Fields” YouTube channel. Kelly filmed herself for 30 minutes, capturing the plight of hand signals and unclear radio calls. While humorous, communication and taking the guesswork out of the lives of the part-time participants can lead to a less stressful harvest.
Enter the world of streamlined communications through connected machines through a Module Telematics Gateway (MTG) and Farm Management System (FMS). Start by helping every machine operator understand where to go to access essential details — like field boundaries and guidance lines — with Work Planner dashboard in the John Deere Operations Center. Producers can easily add in data for different crop varieties and name fields differently, so there are fewer steps for operators to recognize their field’s data sets.
Producers should have their combine and grain carts’ telematics inspected ahead of time by a trusted dealer. If a machine’s modem or in-the-cab display needs updates, a dealer like RDO Equipment Co. will ensure proper connection and collection of data we use daily.
Automate Data Collection for Improved Performance and Adaptability
When ground truthing becomes simple in every field, we can help producers manage potential challenges by taking the next step: automating data collection for combines through a suite of ag technology software and cameras.
In the Operations Center, combine operators unlock ag technology software applications like John Deere’s Combine Advisor. Through the Combine Advisor’s ActiveVision cameras, producers can differentiate between grain and non-grain material, such as weeds, chaff and foreign objects.
After collecting information, producers help operators quickly change the combine’s settings, even remotely, and they are on their way. Producers can remotely check on a combine and its data through their Operations Center account. When data evaluation can be efficient in the field or behind a desk, every field’s harvesting quality is optimized, and we won’t have to second-guess ourselves or our operators.
Be Confident with Machine Control
Combine Advisor’s Auto Maintain features include “cruise control” that automatically adjusts the combine settings to maintain performance-based pre-set targets for grain loss and quality. Auto Maintain works in tandem with the combine’s ActiveVision cameras, so when the cameras send information, like changes in typography or grain, the Auto Maintain system can adjust all five primary combine settings to maintain the user-set performance target.
When the combine and grain cart connect to an FMS, machine-to-machine automated synchronization with John Deere’s Machine Sync allows both operators to view the grain tank so they both understand when it’s time to “bump their bank out wagon” and balance the grain tank for accurate filling.
With Machine Sync, the harvester controls the follower machine’s position during unloading. Machine Sync increases efficiency and protects against machine collisions. With these machine control automations for the harvester and grain cart, we can be confident in any skill level of any operator, including a 13-year-old with snacks in the cab.
Create an Operational Plan, But Be Ready to Pivot
Once, I heard the saying, “No plan survives first contact with an enemy.” All planning cannot prevent a freak thunderstorm or a broken axle on the combine. In these moments, quick decisions are necessary but never convenient. Remote access to a combine’s Display and Operations Center’s GPS, fuel and DEF data without unnecessary phone calls becomes vital. Besides real-time access to info, schedule extra time with all operators (all ages and experience levels) to practice with machines when the stakes are a little lower.
Then, like the prideful producer who watched his son during his first harvesting season, we can have time to watch as the combine goes just over the hill, trusting that even as it is out of sight, the next generation can control the hydro handle.
Now! **chirp** Go ahead kid, take the final pass.
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