I haven’t had a chance to leave the office yet today, but I already have a map of where the combine ran this morning to get a sample and see how dry the beans are. No, the combine doesn’t run itself (yet). My uncle is there and ran a couple short passes to get a sample and test the moisture. The beans were testing 14.8%, so he has shut down and we are waiting for some sunshine and wind to do its thing and we will try it again in a few hours.
So how does all this work?
I have one of the AgFiniti pilot test units from Ag Leader in my combine, which allows for wireless data transfer through a USB WIFI adapter. This small and inexpensive device plugs into my Integra display in the combine, and allows the display to use WIFI and upload files to Ag Leader’s cloud website. You still have to provide your own source of WIFI, which can be done very easily over long ranges using a product like the Ayrstone Ayrmesh Hub.
I have set my Integra display to copy log files at shutdown, so as long as the display is in range of my WIFI source when it is turned off, it will automatically upload the log files to the AgFiniti cloud site, where I went to get the data and read it into my mapping software, SMS.
This type of real-time access to data in agriculture will change the face of how we conduct business, and make many decisions in my operation happen much quicker as we will have the data to make informed decisions. I am very excited about having access to the data this quickly with no hassle. This took no work at all from my uncle running the combine! I will continue to share my experiences with this product as I use it this fall.