Agritechnica: John Deere's rich medal collection

Teaching aids for training operators, harvester sensors that adjust the space between the blade and counterblade of the rotor, smart devices for tractor turns at the headland, 3D cameras; Agritechnica awarded thirteen medals to John Deere technologies

With three gold and ten silver medals, the 2015 edition of Agritechnica marks the success of the innovations by John Deere. Here are all the technologies rewarded with a gold medal by the Innovation Committee of the German Agricultural Society. The John Deere “ProCut” is a system of high-precision sensors integrated in the forage harvester counterblade, to monitor and adjust the space between the blade and counterblade of the cutting rotor when the forage harvester is moving. This received the highest recognition of the jury in Hanover, together with the nutrient management system, a device designed for fertilizing machines and equipment, which ensures high precision in the distribution of minerals and organics (nitrogen and phosphate), dosing the amount according to the soil’s actual needs. A gold medal also went to the John Deere crop protection system with pesticide distribution management. This solution was developed for machines and equipment intended for the protection of crops. It is an intuitive decision aid with which you can deploy crop protection products in a precise and timely manner.

As for innovations rewarded with a silver medal, the worthiest of note is “EZ Ballast”, a flexible system that allows you to connect quickly, from inside the cab, a 1.7 tonne ballast to the bottom of the tractor’s frame. EZ Ballast does not reduce the clearance and optimizes the weight distribution, with great benefits from the point of view of productivity and operating costs. Also worth highlighting, the “iTEC AutoLearn”, an intelligent device for tractor turns at the headland. iTEC AutoLearn automatically detects all actions taken by the operator, storing useful commands and suggesting them in the appropriate situations. The smart all-wheel drive, also rewarded with a silver medal, manages the distribution of tractive force on four-wheel drive tractors, enabling or disabling the all-wheel drive according to the load on the axle, the wheel spin and the tractor’s current speed. We should also mention the 3D camera system, designed to monitor the area surrounding the machine, offering up to six different types of visualization to improve the operational safety of tractors and harvesting machinery, and increasing safety during manoeuvres, use of the front loader and transport operations. Also worthy of note, the “Integrated Combine Adjustment 2” (ICA2), a user-friendly integrated system that optimizes the settings of the combine, reducing losses and improving grain quality. The “GoHarvest” premium combine simulator is a tool for operator training, particularly valuable because it recreates the operating environment of the combines, enabling “authentic” driving and harvesting experiences. With this device, the operator can learn all the “tricks of the trade” in a phased manner, with individual modules of increasing complexity. The John Deere “Active Yield”, which automatically manages the calibration actions needed to measure yield, offers considerable time savings (with Active Yield it is no longer necessary to manually weigh the samples to obtain maximum measurement accuracy). Finally, the “Active Fill Control Sync” is a system equipped with integrated functions for the “intelligent” control of the launch tube and for real-time synchronization between the harvester and the trailer, which facilitate the work during the filling operations in the field. This is in addition to the quality control system with field automation for John Deere’s “ExactEmerge”, which consists of a complete quality control solution that uses special sensors to cover all sowing sub-processes. ExactEmerge also integrates new automation systems that significantly enhance the distribution of plants and the positioning of seeds depending on the different conditions, allowing the operator to have more time to focus on actual sowing operations. The last rewarded innovation was the “TrueSe” automatic tillage system, which allows you to manage from the tractor cab all the main settings of combined tillage equipment. When you change the setting of one of the main components, TrueSet automatically adjusts the settings of the other tools.