2022 Ag Technology Review

After a year of diving more into the John Deere Operations Center, Machine Sync, See and Spray Ultimate, and TruSet Tillage, Tony highlights the best insights from 2022.

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Read the entire transcript from the latest episode,

We're on episode 183, wrapping up year seven. I'm going to be moving into year eight or season eight of the Agriculture Technology Podcast. I just wanted to take a quick moment to review what we talked about over this last season. One of the things that I didn't really plan on but I felt that it went very well was, in 2022, we really dove deep into the operation center. Starting back in April/May timeframe, we started diving into different tools within the John Deere Operations Center. That was both on the mobile side of things, the John Deere Operation Center Mobile available on Android and Apple platforms, whether it's your cell phone or your tablet.

We talked about some of the beneficial features on Operation Center Mobile. We also talked about it from a web standpoint. Some of the things can be done on the web, but they cannot be done on the mobile side of things. We talked about things like machine analyzer, episode 170. How can you analyze your machines? How can you use machine data to optimize your fleet, whether it be fluid consumption or horsepower usage, or idle time, using that tool to key in on maybe underutilized machines, maybe overutilized machines and benchmark things.

If you've got a fleet of combines or you've got a couple of sprayers out in the field, being able to benchmark those machines and really optimize your fleet, making sure that you are getting the most out of your equipment and or you're not overworking your equipment. Maybe we don't want to be short on the equipment that we need. Machine analyzer, we talked about that. We talked about remote view and adjust from a mobile perspective. Being able to take our Operation Center mobile app and being able to remotely view the five major combine settings from your mobile device.

Maybe you're grain-handling the operator, you're at the Dryer Shack or maybe you are the owner operator, but you are just driving truck and you've got a hired hand in the combine. You can look at that grain sample, you can look at grain loss, and you can make adjustment to that gen four capable combine without actually being in the cab of the machine. Great feature. Lots of benefits there to be able to make those adjustments. We talked about sharing data episode 179. Being able to share data with a third party whether it be your agronomist or your accountant, or a landlord.

John Deere has given us many different ways to share and utilize the data to benefit the operation. Going back to the beginning of the season, we talked about John Deere introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show. At the beginning of 2022, John Deere introduced the first fully autonomous tillage solution. On episode 162, we talked about just some stuff that, how can we prepare ourselves for automation? What do we need to do to make sure when these solutions are readily available to the masses, how can we make sure we're ready and prepared to be able to utilize those solutions? Taking big jumps, not being prepared is going to cause headaches. It's going to cause frustration.

Making sure we're taking those incremental steps to be prepared for automation on our operations. We talked about 163, talked about some spring planning. What can we do ahead of time in the operation center to decrease our downtime on the headlands? Decrease our headaches when it comes to spring planting. We know in our neck of the woods here, Minnesota, the Dakotas. When we've got all this time to plan and prepare planting season comes up very quick and it is fast and furious.

We want to make sure that we are prepared, we can dive in and we can go. Talked about a lot of that stuff. We also talked about some technology releases from John Deere, episode number 167. We talked about See and Spray Ultimate. See and Spray Ultimate is that Spot Spray Technology, being able to key in on a weed and only spraying the weeds, not spraying the full field, not spraying, not broadcast spraying, but one of the cool things about Sea and Spray Ultimate is it is also a dual product system.

We could go out and we could do two applications in one pass. Traditionally not wanting to mix certain products, certain chemistries, because of the antagonism that can be caused, you are able to maybe go out and maybe we're going to spray a fungicide on, say, wheat or sugar beets or whatever it may be.

We can broadcast that fungicide across the field, but at the same time, have a spot spray herbicide in tank one and spraying the weeds. Any weed escapes that we have, we can get our fungicide application and we can get our herbicide application all at the exact same time. Putting down a pre, putting down some residual, but also spot spraying the weeds that have already emerged. A lot of different solutions, a lot of different options with that Sea and Spray Ultimate.

Then most recently we talked about episodes 180, 181. We talked about some new tillage technology as well as some tillage tools that are coming out. John Deere introduced the ST series lineup. They're strip-till units. Very cool, very beneficial depending on your operation and where you're at, being able to place those nutrients where we need them.

Because we are able to focus that application within the strip, we are then maybe able to decrease our application rates a little bit, save on some of our inputs because we're not broadcasting, we're focusing that product right in the strip right where the plants need it.

True set active, being able to truly know how deep we are tilling and being able to make those adjustments and compensate for maybe mud buildup on the tires, or we've got a soft spot in the field where the whole tool falls down a little bit. We're able to make those compensations with a sensor on the mainframe that will adjust accordingly. A lot of different things we shared, everything from operations center to some new technology, some new tools. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed the 2022 season. We look forward to continuing to bring you information into our eighth year of production in 2023.

Like I said at the beginning, I just want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you listeners. If it wasn't for you guys, we wouldn't have anybody to share this information with, so thank you very much. Those of you that offer feedback and questions, we love the questions. We love being able to answer the questions, whether it be directly via our YouTube channel or through Twitter or whatever it may be. We enjoy answering the questions that you may have. If you have questions, if you have ideas for the podcast, whatever it may be, topics, potential guests, we would love to hear from you.

We're always looking to share relevant information, relevant topics, and talk about the technology that each and every one of you are interested in. Like I said, crazy, absolutely crazy. We're here on episode 183 moving into our eighth year of production with episodes, starting out with episode 184. Very excited. We hope each and every one of these episodes is beneficial to you. Now, I know not every episode is going to fit the likes of every operation out there, but hopefully you're taking the opportunity to listen to them and maybe learn a little bit about the different options, the different solutions that are out there.

Yes. I don't know what else to say here. Here we are right before the holidays, so I suppose we just want to say happy holidays to each of you. Hope you have a very happy, safe, and wonderful holiday season. Yes. With that, the 2022 season comes to an end. Catch us next year.

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