The ever-changing face of technology is fast becoming the backbone of worldwide agriculture. Looking back over the last few years, accessibility and knowledge in this area are removing the perceived barriers to operating this technology.

Pat Costello from TFM says the new technology is here in Ireland and ready to benefit farmers right now. GPS guidance and auto-steer have been around for over 15 years and are old news. The next era in technology is about supporting the farmer to make the correct decisions on the farm for better efficiency and, ultimately, an increased profit margin. TFM is gearing up for this, setting up a dedicated FarmSight section for the business headed by Richard Palmer.

John Deere is ahead of the curve here. It is currently investing almost €3m daily in research and development. Richard says the big advantage for TFM is that John Deere manufactures its own technology.

Unlike competitors, there is always a John Deere solution to a problem for the farmer. In the past with Isobus, there has been trouble with machines communicating to the tractors; Richard says he knows he has the support in-house to get it sorted for the customer.

TFM is aware that a strong dealer backup is the key to success when implementing technology in the startup phase. TFM director Jimmy Butler has made an observation, saying: “In the past, I went to John Deere meetings, where they told me about what was going to happen in the future. I dismissed their ideas, but they were right and I was wrong. It did happen. So this technology will play a role on every farm – it’s just a matter of when.”

According to Jimmy, it is important to remember that every farmer’s needs are different and that the local dealer will have a stronger role to play in the future to meet these demands. At the recent Irish Farmers Journal AgTech conference, William McKnight from John Deere explained that 70% of the extra food required by the world’s growing population must come from efficient and improving technology.

John Deere technology

John Deere FarmSight integrates wireless communications and advanced precision farming technology to connect equipment, owners, operators and dealers. TFM says this will make farming and the use of machines much more efficient. In a demo prepared by Richard, he highlighted the advantages of the system by logging on to myJohnDeere.com. The locations of all the registered machines on the system were displayed. So the farmer or contractor had a live feed of information on the tractors, combines and loaders. Taking this on another level, Richard says he could program a field on the system, so that the John Deere tractor automatically recognises the field when it drives in. This means that the tractor’s terminal can take the preset information entered for that field, and adjust the settings on the machine when connected to an Isobus system. This eliminates the chance of the driver making a mistake in setting the rate of fertiliser or seed, for example.

All the information is recorded and stored on the system, so it can be used for farm recordkeeping and compliance audits later. The technology uses GPS and internet cloud-based systems to deliver the information to and from the tractor.

JDLink

Once the customer gives TFM permission to remotely monitor their machines, they can analyse how they’re being used. Using this information, they can provide operator training on the right machine setups, choice of implements and work rates to optimise individual machines. Harvest season is also seen as another important step. Remote monitoring of combine performance will allow real-time advice on the right settings for the conditions. According to Richard, even when harvesting is over, the work can still continue. They can help customers to analyse harvest data and prepare reports with yield maps.

FarmSight and AMS

Many John Deere customers are already familiar with Agricultural Management Solutions (AMS). This is the range of fully integrated products and services including GreenStar receivers and displays, guidance systems and remote monitoring technology. AMS was developed by John Deere, recognising the productivity improvements that could be made by integrating technology directly into farming equipment.

FarmSight builds on the AMS product range by including dealer value-added services, according to John Deere. These services are designed to help the farmer get more from the equipment and AMS products. They will include remote monitoring of machines, dealer-owned RTK networks, performance analysis, agronomic decision support and much more, according to Richard. A farmer with a mixed fleet of equipment can retro-fit the technology depending on the compatibility of the data collected by the machine.

TFM offers

For this year, TFM is offering customers the chance to avail of a promotional discount. This means in year one, the cost of an SF2 signal is €650 per annum excluding VAT. SF2 has a pass-to-pass accuracy of about 2cm to 3cm. The options can be tailored for the farmer. For a combine, the packages start at €750 per annum, and the cost is similar for a tractor. Depending on valuable the return is for the farmer, the more machines can be added. The reassuring part from the farmer’s perspective is that there is someone on the other end of the phone if the technology gives up.