John Deere introduces grain-sensing tech for S700 combines

With John Deere’s new and innovative grain-sensing tech – HarvestLab 3000 – now available as a field kit, farmers will be able to capture a more holistic and accurate picture of their grain operations, John Deere said.

The technology was first introduced to the forage industry in 2007 as HarvestLab, and was later upgraded to HarvestLab 3000 in 2017. The latter version has expanded capabilities for use in the grains sector and is able to continuously measure and monitor protein, starch, oil, and moisture values in wheat, barley or canola in real time as the combine is harvesting.

The site-specific data can then be viewed in the cab, or in John Deere Operations Center, allowing farmers to make critical marketing and management decisions before the grain has left the field.

“John Deere has been working with Australian farmers for the past two years to develop the HarvestLab 3000 grain-sensing technology which will transform how they market their grain and manage their nutrient inputs,” said John Deere Precision Ag Manager, Benji Blevin.  

“Currently, most farmers only have the ability to assess samples of their grains with a stationary protein analyser once back in the shed. Now, with HarvestLab 3000, farmers will have a complete map of grain quality, which can be overlaid with a yield map, and can see exactly what parts of their paddocks are producing the highest quality grain.

“Farmers will also be able to utilise HarvestLab 3000 to plan future fertiliser programs based on how successfully nutrients were converted into yield, protein, starch, or oil.”

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The technology works as the combine moves through the field, and a motor-driven auger pushes grain past the HarvestLab 3000’s near-infrared sensor. Then, together with the StarFire™ receiver, site-specific data is generated on the Generation 4 Display and sent to Operations Center via JDLink™.

A farming operation which has benefitted greatly from the tech is one run by the Rethus family, who have been involved in local John Deere trials of the technology at the family’s 5500ha cropping enterprise, in Victoria’s Wimmera region.

Luke Rethus said the tech has been a game-changer for their grain marketing.

“With HarvestLab, we understand the protein in our crop, on the go, as we harvest, which helps us to decide how we segregate the crop.

“This gives us the opportunity to make a decision to blend the grain later, depending on the state of the market. This would have been useful in the past when we had some crops that finished with very high protein. When that grain was delivered to the traders, there was a limit on the amount of protein that we could be paid for, so we didn’t receive any benefit for the premium quality.

“At the end of the year, everything comes down to the analysis of your maps, and deciding which crop or paddock is more profitable. Adding that protein layer helps us better understand whether an area was actually just the highest yielding, or whether it was the most profitable.”

Farmers can also analyse HarvestLab 3000 information against yield maps in Operations Center to gain additional insights or to create application maps for fertiliser or other inputs, John Deere added.

“HarvestLab helps down the track for nutrition management. If you’ve got a field that’s got high protein areas or low protein areas, why was that?” Geoff Rethus said.

“The high protein may have been because you’ve over applied nitrogen to your crop. This can result in an extra expense for which you are not paid for, reduced yield because too much biomass has been produced, or you may have low protein, because you didn’t put on enough nitrogen to optimise your yield. With HarvestLab you can make a decision almost to the plant level.”

HarvestLab 3000 is available to order from April for easy integration into 2018 or later S700 series combines before the 2023 harvest season.