Hi-tech product launch at Precision Farming
John Deere launched a batch of hi-tech agricultural products at this year’s Precision Farming event.
Details were unveiled at the East of England Showground, Peterborough, on Wednesday (10 March).
A new Application Pro Universal system means better accuracy and lower costs can be achieved on ISOBUS-ready sprayers, fertiliser spreaders and drills.
Optional modules on the latest GreenStar 2 precision farming software packages have been designed for the GreenStar 2600 in-cab display. These allow third party machines to be automatically switched on and off according to their GPS position.
A Sprayer Pro package, for example, includes automatic boom section control and an automatic master on/off control at the headland. It takes control of the boom sections and automatically switches them on and off when entering an area already sprayed or located outside set boundaries.
John Deere also unveiled two new ways of supplying farm vehicles with highly accurate GPS correction signals for precision farming applications. A mobile RTK system boasts an industry exclusive ‘fall-back’ feature, and a unique method of extending the signal reliably from an RTK base station.
Using the StarFire RTK (real time kinematic) system, it is possible to achieve a repeatable accuracy of only +/- 2cm. This is recommended for farmers who need high levels of accuracy for crop establishment, treatment and harvesting applications.
It is being targeted at potato producers and growers wishing to carry out controlled traffic farming (CTF).
As an alternative to the existing base station system, the new StarFire Mobile RTK option instead uses a modem connected to a vehicle-mounted receiver. The StarFire iTC receiver provides a correction signal via the Vodafone mobile phone network and a central internet-based server.
The central server automatically calculates the optimum error correction for the vehicle’s location. This enables it maintain +/- 2cm repeatable accuracy regardless of the vehicle’s position.
