Combine Technology Continues to Improve Monitoring & Productivity

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Combine technology has come a long way since combines were introduced in 1843 and it’s expected that within the next decade, farmers could have autonomous combines running through the night. While autonomous combines are still in the development stages; what we do know is that precision farming technology is making an impact on farming productivity.

Combine precision farming

Information systems on combines have also advanced since first introduced in the late 1960s. Today, highly sophisticated guidance and automated control and adjustment systems are reducing harvest time in the fields and significantly improving productivity.

The installation of grain-loss sensors and a small display in the combine cab paved the way for increasingly sophisticated – and useful – in-cab data displays to support the operator’s own skills.

Yield monitoring, guidance & steering

In the same decade, Massey Ferguson sparked the precision farming revolution by bringing together yield recording and satellite positioning technologies. This enabled farmers to see yield variation within fields and subsequently take measures to raise average yield and/or cut input costs.
Harvest is your one and only shot to monitor, map and evaluate data about your crops’ performance. You need intuitive solutions that help you gather information right away, and that’s what Case IH AFS provides.
You can immediately analyze the performance of different seed varieties and most importantly, you have a system and support team designed to fit your farming operation. Case IH AFS harvest monitoring and mapping tools provides these options and more.
Subsequent precision farming improvements continued to help the operator with steering an accurate course, which scans the edge of a standing crop. This was a precursor to satellite-based guidance and auto steering, which enables combines to accurately open up crops in perfectly parallel 'lands' and so minimize unproductive short-work.
In the following decade, auto-guidance systems brought automatic speed control in crops of varying density by measuring the load on the elevator driveline or the threshing drum to optimize throughput.
Farmers can complete field applications quickly and efficiently with guidance and steering products that help accurately monitor and map field information in real time with Trimble’s Guidance & Steering solutions.
Integrated yield and moisture monitoring sensors are standard on Case IH Axial-Flow combines. These sensors interface with the AFS Pro 700 display, providing instant and average crop yield and moisture information to the user.

Telematics

Telematics have been used for more than a dozen years by freight trucking operations that needed to monitor, on a screen, where their expensive cargos are in their delivery routes. That same technology is now making its way into farm machinery, notably in combines, but it’s also beginning to crop up in tractors as well.
The introduction of telematics in the early years of the new millennium provides real-time data collection for machine and harvesting efficiency management and was a first step towards precision farming and the universally 'connected farm' concept.
In the current decade, support resources with remote display access enables farm managers and dealers to assist operators remotely with set-up, performance optimization and troubleshooting as if they were in the cab.
Wireless data transfer eliminates the potential pitfalls of manual transfer of collected data to computer- or cloud-based farm management systems and remote exchange of set-up data.
There are a number of precision farming technologies that bring automation and innovation including in-field guidance, yield monitoring, and real-time crop analysis. Trimble offers harvest solutions technology packages that enhance the ROI in today’s farming operations.

The Future

At an operation level, there are a number of technologies that expect to extract greater throughput from harvesters that cannot get much bigger than they are today, including automatic blockage avoidance, interactive settings advice and fully automated settings adjustments.

Industry harvester experts speculate future technologies already showcased, such as the Case IH’s V2V synchronized combine and grain cart guidance, will be joined by more sophisticated automatic controls. In addition, greater use of on-board grain analysis could help better inform storage and crop marketing decisions.

While new combine technologies are approaching, they need to add value by raising output, reducing costs or providing useful management data, and they must be simple to use in the hectic rush of harvest.

Vision for the future in combine harvesting

Increased electronic sensing to monitor harvester load, grain sample, fuel consumption and grain losses to take away the guesswork in making set-up changes while on the move.
Synchronized combine and grain cart GPS guidance to reduce driver stress and workload and minimize risk of tractor/header collisions.
Smarter on-board data collection and cloud-based processing will automatically generate yield and quality maps by location, crop type, crop condition and variety for more informed decision making.
Autonomous grain cart operation to reduce labor costs, with predictive technology getting it to the right place at the right time for combine offloading.
On-board crop scanner detects patches of prominent weeds (for example, grasses, thistles) for subsequent patch herbicide spraying.
Grain harvesting management system will supply crop data gathered on combine to automatically regulate drying, handling and storage system.
Autonomous combines will work through the night on GPS controlled traffic lines, adjusting to harvesting conditions and stockpiling grain ready for transport at the start of a new day.

SOURCES:

Case IH Precision Farming Tools

Trimble Precision Farming: Guidance & Steering, Harvest Solutions

Future Farming: The combine technology that helps gather the world’s grain

National Geographic: Precision Agriculture