John Deere announces Operation Center updates

John Deere said its latest Operation Center improvements were aimed at increasing productivity for farmers, making machine monitoring and record keeping much easier.

The most significant updates include the expansion of John Deere’s input product database, and a new 'Estimated Time Remaining' feature for tasks to be completed in the field.

“Prior to this update, growers in Australia had to manually input their own product information into Operations Center, which led to errors in record keeping and ultimately unusable data,” said John Deere Australia and New Zealand Precision Agriculture Manager, Benji Blevin.

“Now customers can select products from more than 3500 varieties, 5000 chemicals, and almost 1000 fertiliser products specific to Australia, ensuring they are capturing accurate records against farm operations including product name, brand, and registration number.

“This is an important update, as products form a key part of digital work plans that can be sent to machines wirelessly, ensuring that the right product is applied to the right fields and with the right rates.

“It will also improve the data available for farmers to make improved decisions for the next season.”

As part of the new upgrade, farmers will also now receive Uber-like updates on the efficiency of multiple machines in a paddock with the addition of the feature, Estimated Time Remaining.

“Operations Centre mobile will now provide farm managers with near real-time estimates on activity in a field,” Blevin said.

“Estimated Time Remaining applies data science to current and historical productivity to provide an accurate calculation of how long it will take a single machine or multiple machines to complete field work. The calculation, which updates every five minutes, is based on a number of factors such as turn times and machine configuration.

“Now farmers will know, to the minute, how long it will take to complete the work in the field before the rain sets in or the exact time a tender truck needs to meet the sprayer.”

Another effective farm management features included in the update is the ability for managers to track the amount of time a machine stays idle.

“A timer begins when any equipment begins idling and continues counting up until the machine is back in action again,” Blevin said.

“All these machine monitoring features alert farmers on potential inefficiencies in their operations, and provide invaluable insights for the better management of labour and flow of operational activity.”

Other updates include:

The new and improved map page aims to simplify farmers’ experience of monitoring fieldwork and equipment from the office.

The update also allows farmers to select multiple partner organisations to view equipment information, as well as visualise complete location history including direction of travel and a time filter.

Farmers will also now be able to compare the performance of older machines that are no longer in the fleet with new equipment currently in use, providing valuable insights into the performance of their machinery investments.

The new equipment management tool enables farmers to view and manage their entire fleet in one place, including machines, implements, and precision ag devices.

For more information about the updates, visit the John Deere website or contact your local John Deere dealer.