Telematics, remote accessing, data sharing… but who exactly is using this technology and what are the advantages? P J Lee and Sons has been using John Deere’s technology offering so is in a good position to comment.
Precision farming is increasingly used as a decision-making tool for cereal growers, but as technology develops to reliably control and co-ordinate larger fleets of machinery, it offers the potential for significant improvements in efficiency for high value crops such as potatoes. Working alongside John Deere Precision Ag dealer Ben Burgess, leading grower PJ Lee and Sons has been steadily progressing its use of the technology with a mixed and diverse fleet of machinery in Cambridgeshire.
“We have a number of John Deere tractors, but also have JCB Fastrac 4000 series which are delivered ‘John Deere guidance-ready’ and have a JDlink telemetry gateway installed to feed back data from the potato planters into the MyJohnDeere portal.” explains estate manager, Simon Quince. “We also have two Case IH Quadtracs that are used for tillage, due to be converted to John Deere guidance and telematics by Ben Burgess for the autumn. The objective is to become ‘paperless’, with all soil preparation and planting data transferred wirelessly back to the office.
“The mixed fleet makes the most of the strengths of the different tractors; the Fastrac rear platform is ideal for mounting the liquid fertiliser tank for the planter and it is also good for carting in the autumn – we replaced 14 haulage tractors with nine Fastrac 4000 series, and they were supplied with John Deere Precision Ag-ready for easier use with MyJohnDeere. The Quadtrac showed itself to be the right tractor for cultivations when we demoed it on farm.”
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