The iPad may be coming to your tractor

Monday, April 2, 2012

A new app that works in tandem with Precision Planting's SeedSense monitor gives operators a better overall view of planter activity. And they get to take the data away with them

by MIKE MULHERN

The iPad tablet has found a place in the tractor cab along with the 20/20 SeedSense monitor from Precision Planting.

The iPad application for the popular seed monitoring system is called FieldView. It will allow operators to see things, in real-time, that are not detailed on the 20/20 display.

Dustin Blunier, marketing-communications manager at Precision, says the company released the new app in January. To work, the app requires a power module that grabs data from the SeedSense monitor and feeds it into an iPad mounted in the cab of the tractor.

"You basically run that in tandem with your SeedSense in the cab when you're planting," Blunier says. "It will do instant mapping of all your planter performance. When you're done, you can take the iPad with you with all your monitor information. You can use that in the office or take it to the field for scouting."

Hamilton area farmer Jeff Barlow has been using SeedSense and additional Precision Planting products on his 16-row planter for three years. He just bought the iPad app – he already owned an iPad – and is eager to take it into the field this spring. He believes the real-time mapping of skips and doubles will add up to improvements at both seeding and harvest time.

"This is going to allow me to see a lot of stuff on the go that, before, you could only see afterwards," he says. The data will allow him to make adjustments instantly.

The iPad app is one of a list of after-market add-ons that allow farmers to make the most of every seed. Barlow says Precision's RowFlow software, which controls on and off clutches in his planter, makes it possible to cover every row without over-seeding.

"You can come up on a headland at an angle and as you cross the headland, each row turns off individually, so it doesn't over-plant anywhere. If a field is 32 acres, it plants 32 acres of seed, not 35."

Precision Planting's Blunier says RowFlow allows farmers to map their fields and drop the co-ordinates into the system. "You can write a prescription and put it into the display. Then RowFlow will read that prescription map and boundary map, and it will drive your hydraulic motors and shut off your clutches accordingly."

Barlow, who farms 70 acres of sweet corn near Caledonia, bought his Precision Planting equipment from Tom Snyder. The Snyders operate Grand River Planters in Caledonia and became a Precision Planter dealer in 2009 after first trying 20/20 SeedSense in 2008 on their own four-row corn planter.

"All I can tell you is the changes we made to our planter in the first year after having SeedSense netted us a 10 per cent increase in what we were selling," Snyder says. "It was the same seed, the same program, everything was the same except for the changes we made to our planter."

The iPad, Snyder says, is going to extend the picture that is captured by SeedSense.

"SeedSense is giving you an accurate picture of what the planter is doing right now. However," Snyder says, "just looking at the SeedSense screen, we wouldn't know what it did 10 seconds ago. With the iPad, we're going to be able to see patterns developing and we'll get a more accurate view of what the planter is doing (or has done) across the field."

The iPad app in Canada is about $1,000 plus the cost of the iPad. The 20/20 SeedSense system costs about $6,000 to $6,200. A full load of Precision Planting equipment, beginning with SeedSense and then adding down-force monitoring and control and seed flow monitoring and control, plus the new iPad app, can add $20,000 or more to the cost of a planter. Precision Planting says planters built from the early to mid-1990s up to the present day can be fitted with their monitoring and control products.

Precision Planting is also adding a yield function to their 20/20 system which will be coupled with the iPad app FieldView. Blunier says they will be beta-testing the yield monitor and iPad app on selected combines during the 2012 harvest season. They expect to come to market with the combined iPad/yield monitor function in 2013. BF