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Rawlins County Kansas | Lot's of good discussion around a topic I'm really wanting to see something done in. My interest lies not with the row-crops but rather with the wheat crop. We're in an area with water retention terraces that are steep enough that we can not cut wheat over the top of them yet and consequently we cut "terrace by terrace" which results in a lot of point rows and partial swaths. Making swath-control available on combines should be a no-brainer as it doesn't involve any equipment changes or major modifications. All the swath control has to do is send a "current equipment width" reading to the yield mapping system (no different than it does now in the sprayer, planter or drill). This would clean up our yields maps immensely, save me a lot of time cleaning up our yields maps and is done in real time so the in-cab readings are correct as well.
That is the easy part, the more complicated part is bridging information between multiple combines in the same field in real-time so that all of the combines "are aware" of what has and hasn't been cut. Although not terribly complicated in terms of passing the data back and forth (could even be done with an internet connection in the cab to alleviate distance or line of site issues with other forms of wireless data transfer). The real question is how much the consoles or software on them will have to change to accommodate bringing in information from a remote source (whether it be via radio, internet, field wifi or whatever else). I just don't know how flexible a system like a GS2 or Insight are in this regards.
With all of that said, I would be perfectly happy to "simulate" harvest with swath-control in a piece of software back in the office long after harvest is over. My primary goal is to get accurate yield maps and there is no question that right now the optimal solution (especially for folks running multiple machines) is getting it done on the desktop after all of the data have been imported. I think swath-control on the combine will be a reality in the immediate future but I'm far less optimistic about pushing data back and forth between machines in the field.
Adios,
Diet | |
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Mutliple combines coverage maps
