“Smart conversations” between tractors, tools save time, money

If a traditional tractor is the most versatile tool on the farm, imagine that tool’s utility if it were a self-driving tractor with “smart” implements that could not only be programmed, but could adjust to field conditions in “real time.”

“Our tractors do all the field work on our 492-acres – planting, cultivating, spraying, harvesting, farm cleanup, even small logging jobs. They ease the burden and make our job so much easier,” said Daniel Cooper, field crops coordinator and interim superintendent of the N.C. A&T University Farm. “New tractors have sensors, tracking and precision capabilities that make them even better. That kind of tech on a tractor was unheard of a generation ago.”

Guidance controls allow the two new-generation John Deere tractors on the University Farm to steer themselves. With automation, they reduce repetitive tasks to the touch of a button. Their remote diagnostics allow farmers to run their field operations from their office – or from the beach, providing them with a better work-life balance. Sensors allow variable-rate applications and respond to field conditions.

“The magic is in the implement, the brain is in the tractor,” Cooper said. “We can create spray or harvest maps, upload them into tractor, the tractor feeds the information to the implement behind it and they work in unison. The implement can adjust as it works – for example, it will not spray the same area twice. If it “knows” that it has sprayed a row, or one plant on a row, and its nozzles will cut off when it gets to that plant again. The operator can see what tractor is running, what field it’s in, what rpms it’s running and more, all on the app.”

If a farmer plans to fertilize a field that day, he or she can set up a program and upload it into the tractor’s computer. The tractor will convey the information to the implement behind it, letting it know details about the task at hand.

“As you go through the field, the tractor’s guidance system will let the implement know, ‘We’re in a certain spot in the field, we need to cut the rate down here,’ and the implement will “talk” back to the tractor and say, ‘OK, I’m spreading this much fertilizer now.’ At another spot in the field, the computer will “know” to raise the rate, and everything will adjust on the move.”

When it comes to planting, guidance controls not only allow the tractor to steer itself but maintain proper spacing in between rows and eliminate skips. The sensors know what areas to spray and how much – a little here, a lot there. New sprayers can even identify weeds with the laser sensors on its booms, and spray only the weeds, he said.

“These little efficiencies have a cascading effect of saving money,” Cooper said. “The current drills and planters are close to one hundred percent accurate – there won’t be one spot where 20 seeds may’ve fallen, others none. That’s going to reduce seed costs. They help with land stewardship, too, by not allowing you to over-fertilize or over-spray.”

Remarkable as this technology is, it is not without cost: more than $150,000 for a new John Deere 6155M, one of the University Farm’s new additions.

So how will the university use the tractors to help small-scale farmers across the state, whose bottom lines tend to be smaller, as well?

“We’ll use it to demonstrate the possibilities,” Cooper said. “Everybody likes to save money, and these little efficiencies add up. Precision tools make calculating exact costs easier. Farmers will see that there’s a hefty up-front cost but that, over time, they can save money with certain implements that show you exactly what’s needed and where.

“If they can have better land stewardship at the same time, they can do the calculations and purchasing one may become worth it to them.”