Combining my worst field
In the Books
2024: A Year to Forget
I'm over it. Shoo shoo, 2024.
Having endured a flood and a drought in the same growing season, it's a wonder the crops did as well as they did this year. On the whole the soybeans fared better than the corn on our fields, but I can't say anything was what I would consider "good."
Wasn't all bad, though. Despite the insanely dry conditions, nothing ever started on fire. We didn't have any major grain spills. The corn was ridiculously dry so we saved money on LP fuel. Uhh...what else? No one got seriously injured. Oh, and my sister rode along one day. She doesn't get back for harvest often, so that was fun!
Despite the circumstances, I think we made some strides in the right direction. We made a mess of equipment lineup changes, all precipitated by the failure of our 2022 S770 combine. As a result, we ended up upgrading our grain cart and row crop tractor, going from this:
to this:
and with those equipment upgrades came next-gen automation that made the cool stuff happen. Previously, we had no experience with Machine Sync. It's neat!
I didn't narrate what was happening in the video but when I pan to the monitor, look at the Machine Sync status in the upper left part of the screen. It goes from Ready (grain cart operator in the zone, as determined by "Home", or where the auger is dead center of the grain cart. When I get close to the grain cart with the combine, the grain cart operator hits "Resume" in his cab, which makes the status on my screen go from "Ready" to "Acquiring". When the grain cart gets positioned and locked in to where I want it, the status changes to "Tracking" until the grain cart operator moves the steering wheel. When the grain cart is tracking, I can speed up and slow down the combine as necessary, and with no interaction from the grain cart operator, it will match the speed of the combine. If the cart begins to fill up, I can bump the grain cart forward, backward, or from side to side. Giving this control to the combine operator, who can actually see what's happening from a proper vantage point is a terrific development.
Is it worth the premium? I don't know; probably not. But it's innovative and (as long as it works properly) can ease the burden of stressful situations. Our track record with JD engines hasn't been great but I cannot deny that their tech is pretty damn cool.
Posted by:
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Justin