The CROP CARE Show | Premiere Episode 2 | DEERE STUDIO

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Today we'll be diving into the world of digital data management and how it can transform your spraying operations. Plus we'll be looking at the latest camera technology and how it can help to reduce your herbicide costs by up to 77%.

There's always something for a customer to learn about their fields or machines from the operations center that they didn't know before.

Welcome to the Deer Studio. In this program we'll take a look at how better data management can help you with more accurate work planning, more accurate record keeping and and more efficient spraying. We'll also take a look at how the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence can help you to reduce herbicide costs in the years to come. In this program I'm joined by my wonderful colleague Franzi.

Yeah, hello. Also from my side. So first let's go back to our customer Matthias, who we first heard from in our previous program.

The main reason why I'm using the OP center is for. For backups. Editing the boundaries is. Is nice because if you're drawing your boundaries with a tractor or so on the corners will be a bit.

Yeah.

Out or off. How to say? So you can edit them in. In the OP center and then remove them back to the tractors. If you would have to have the exact same boundaries around your field for using section controls. I believe in the future when we do get some newer equipment, especially our tractors, I will start to use more the possibility to plan the task up front and also make it easier for the driver that maybe normally is not driving that specific machine that when he's entering the field everything will pop up and he cannot basically not do anything wrong.

So right now Matthias is only using the operations centre as a data backup. Franzi, how common a situation is that?

Yeah Mark, that's a very good point. So Matthias mentioned the current interaction of many of our customers with the operations center. Very well. Good news. There are much more opportunities making Matias and your work much more comfortable and flexible. So you all have so much data inside your display and your operation center or the display only. Who could be used for your management or your decision making? Unfortunately, many customers are currently not aware of that mess of data they have. And how can they use it for their advantage?

Now I know that when I talk to many users a big concern for them is around data management. So how secure is customers data when it's loaded into the operations center?

Yeah Mark, that's always a very critical step for our customers. So the complete data is backed up in the cloud same as you have for your smartphone or other technologies. So there is no risk of losing the data completely as it could happen when you have it only on the paper or on the laptop itself. So you as a customer are always in control of that full data and everything is bundled in your hands and your responsibility.

Now Matthias also mentioned about setting up and editing data in the operations center. So it was a true operations centre expert. Franzi, what are the critical steps when you want to do that?

Also a very good point, Mark. So first of all I would like to say that the operations center is the place to build a digital twin of what exists on our real farm. So of course it takes a lot of time setting up a complete new operations center account. You have to get all the team, all the equipment, all of your products and your land. So all boundaries, all guidance lines, all flags, etc. In the operations center. Spending that time and that investigation, I am sure that you will benefit from that because you have everything bundled on one place.

Dealer support is vital when setting up the operations centre. Let's go to one UK dealer and find out about the support that they provide.

Thomas Sheriff was first established in 1816 and and we've been in the John Deere dealership since 1972. We now have seven outlets across the northeast of England and the southeast of Scotland. So we're not here just to get the spray out the door, we're here to support it throughout its working life. We usually start before the customer even gets his sprayer by inputting all of his boundaries into the operations centre. So that helps anomalously with data collection because even if the operator forgets to change field when he's out in the sprayer, it'll automatically click to that boundary and operations center. Now with the one click auto setup, customers can load up to 20 products into tank mixes to send out directly to the tractor along with boundaries, guidance lines and any other information needed. So the customer can pick these when he gets into the field automatically. On the back of this, it means that reliable data will be sent back to the operations center so the customer can see exactly what's been going on in the field.

So as you can see, support from your dealers, Precision Ag specialists is vital when setting up and getting the best out of the operations centre. Franzi, Michael mentioned about auto setup. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

Yeah, for sure. So Michael already explained it very well. AutoSetup allows customers to create work plans in the operations center before the fieldwork starts, sending them wirelessly to the machine via JDLink and setting up the Gen 4 display automatically based on the information from the work plans. So talking with farm managers, they really like the opportunity to creating the work plans in the off season, but also have the flexibility to directly react on changing conditions so very spontaneously in the long term we help you to to increase the quality of your documentation. Data coming back from the display.

And that's absolutely it, isn't it Franzi? It's all about reliable data, not just for accurate record keeping, but for future analysis.

Exactly. So with all the data coming back from the display, we enable farmers to analyze the complete season. So from seeding to harvest, the analyze tool in the operations center is an easy way to compare different applications, products or methods and also gives you a better feeling for what is the best strategy for your regional conditions.

Excellent Franzi, thank you. So now let's go back to Michael and find out about a few more ways that they're using the operations centre to support their customers.

So customers are using the operations centre more and more to build a bigger picture of what's going on in the field with all the applications that are being recorded. We're also adding to this as a dealership by offering soil conductivity scanning and targeted soil sampling. So this enables the customer to make data driven decisions to maximize his profit and minimise any excess costs. We recently went out to a farm to carry out some conductivity scanning and after we got all the data back in, we invited the farmer into the office. He was flabbergasted by the amount of information what we could give him and he could actually relate to the parts of the fields which he could see wasn't performing as they should. He's now decided to start sowing variable rate and we're also going out to do some targeted soil sampling off the back of the data that we collected.

Combining sprayer data with other forms of field analysis in the operation centre can add another dimension to your crop husbandry. Franzi, what kind of data can we load into the operation centre and how do we go about doing that?

Yeah, that's a very good question mark. So for all connected John Deere machines we generate a wireless data transfer and this is for sure the easiest way uploading and sharing data with others. We also offer a very simple track and drop solution and with Data Connect we've got also an opportunity to see the live location of your mixed fleet.

And once I have that information in there, then I can share that with my advisors, like for example, my agronomist.

Yeah, for sure. So as I said before, you as a customer are always in control of your data and you can decide which data you would like to share and on which way. So via the operations center directly or out of the operations center as a shapefile, Excel sheet or PDF document. So coming back to your example for sure you can share it with your economic advisors, but you can decide which specific data you would like to share, but you don't have to.

And are there any other final features that you think would be particularly of benefit to sprayer users?

Yeah, as you can imagine I've got a lot of features in my mind, but picking up one so we've got a great feature for monitoring and with that you can see exactly where your equipment is, how many hectares have been sprayed and what percentage of a field or spraying work in general is completed, even which part of the field. We also added speed and work state so you can directly see if a machine is working, idling or transporting.

So camera systems to identify and spray individual weeds in a growing crop are a hot topic right now and John Deere is at the forefront of this technology. Lets take a look at a brand new John Deere product.

CN Spray select enables spot spraying of weeds on bare soil. It's our first product to use this new technology and is the only factory installed spot spraying solution on the market. Built around the exactapply system, CN Spray uses advanced camera technology to identify different colours on bare soil, detecting weeds and spraying them individually. The spray length or buffer is the length of the spot spraying zone and varies depending on the ground speed, spray pressure and boom height. When the system detects a weed, it automatically turns individual nozzles on or off to produce the exact spray length required. See and spray can cover over 98% of weeds, which is a similar hit rate to broadcast spraying. But since see and spray only targets individual weeds and not the entire field, it uses significantly less herbicide. In tests covering over 30,000 hectares of bare soil and in average growing conditions, and with a typical weed population of more than 7,000 plants per hectare, tank level sensors reported average herbicide savings of 77% when compared with a broadcast spray. These significant input cost reductions could help growers farm more efficiently and sustainably while meeting the challenges of future environmental regulations.

Amazing technology. This is the future.

Yes, absolutely. Franzi. So CN Spray select is available in the US right now and it is coming to Europe, but of course we have different needs and different requirements, so we have to test in those European conditions to make sure that it will meet the requirements of European customers.

So I guess this will also help customers to apply chemicals more precisely.

Yes, for sure. So by applying only as and where necessary, customers will be able to reduce their chemical usage down to the absolute minimum. But you know more than that. By applying just exactly where they need, customers will also be able to meet more stringent pesticide legislation and also to meet consumer requirements for food produced with less chemicals.

So currently it works only in green and brown detection bare soil. Will it be able to detect weeds and in growing fields in the future?

Definitely. So see and spray ultimate with the ability to detect growing weeds in the growing crop is in development in the US right now and again it will come to Europe. But we do need to test in European crops of course for different weeds. That is going to take quite some time to fulfill, but the results are going to be well worthwhile. The wait we'll bring you more news about our latest technologies later in the year, but for now that brings our Deere Studio spraying programs to an end. If you'd like more help or advice about the Operation Centre or any other of the products we've spoken about today, please contact your local John Deere dealer. Also, keep a lookout on social media for hints and tips from our factory spraying expert Stein.

So we hope you enjoyed our program today and again, please comment, like and subscribe. Thanks for watching and goodbye.