Everything is bigger on these machines.
“We go from a 29.5-inch-wide cutter head to a 36-inch-wide cutter head,” he said. “The whole focus was to listen to our big producers who were looking for more performance especially in barley, triticale, and heavy cereals.”
In addition, the 1000 Series supports a 14-row corn head, and a 15-foot hay head.
A unique feature about the hay head is it doesn’t have a clutch. “From a maintenance standpoint it means you don’t have to worry about chains breaking,” Jaynes said. “And with these slip clutches they weaken over time, and that can come at a financial cost to the producer.” The 1000 Series forage harvesters are equipped with the Multi Crop Cracker XL.
This roller system features a 12.20-inch (310mm) roller diameter for corn processing.
“Corn cracking as become a necessity and everyone is looking to make sure every kernel is blown up,” Jaynes said. “We added a lot more teeth to help with processing capacity.”
These new forage harvesters have multiple pieces of new precision tech available too.
Like the CLAAS NUTRIEMETER.
This system uses sensors to measure the crop combing through. “It measures moisture, but you can also have it measure things like starch and protein,” Jaynes said. “It’ll record all of that by field so you can make agronomic decisions.”
And the GPS PILOT CEMIS 1200.
This automatic steering and precision farming system helps farmers avoid overlaps, shows real-time yield data, and application rates. “Combining that with CLAAS connect, all the data goes to the cloud and you can view the information and send it to your agronomist,” Jaynes said. CEMOS AUTO PERFORMANCE is available too.
“It controls your groundspeed and your horsepower,” Jaynes said. “If you set your max speed to 7 mph, it’ll keep lugging that chopper down until you reach that speed. And when you hit that speed it’ll decrease the horsepower so you get fuel savings.”
John Deere is highlighting its available precision upgrades given the difficult economic times.
“We understand that new machinery purchases are challenging for a lot of our customers,” Kyle Barry, manager of precision upgrades marketing at John Deere, told Farms.com. “The ability to upgrade and retrofit existing machines, whether that be a planter, an air seeder, a tractor, a combine (or) sprayer, we have an entire portfolio for all of those products.”
Many of the options are compatible with equipment back to 2005. Take MaxEmerge 5e and ExactEmerge, for example.
These options help increase planting accuracy by up to 20 per cent. “Also we know that the emergence in the uniform stand is much more prevalent with ExactEmerge and the brush belt technology,” Barry said. The brush belt technology precisely delivers seeds like corn, soybeans, and cotton into planting trenches at higher speeds.
There’s also FurrowVision, which uses cameras and lasers allowing farmers to see real-time video of the seed furrow.
ExactShot helps with precise starter fertilizer applications, and ExactRate supports accurate nutrient planting.
Deere’s wide variety of offerings is about supporting consumers in their individual operations, Barry said.
“You could have had a planter that you bought two years ago that you've decided you want to configure to be different than what it was,” he said.
“That's what our upgrades portfolio is really about, is just meeting the customer where they are.”
From an air seeding perspective, Deere has its AccuRate metering system available.
This provides the ability to run section control for eight sections across the machine.
That technology is available on a new C Series air cart, can be added as a retrofit on a 2005 or newer 1910 air cart, or on a 2017 and newer C650 and C850 air cart.
John Deere has multiple sprayer upgrades available too.
One is nozzle control technology.
“We have Individual Nozzle Control Pro, which would go back to a 2008 or newer 4730 or 4830 sprayer,” Barry said. “It gives you 15hz pulse with modulation, and nozzle control down to the individual nozzle.” From there there’s also See and Spray Premium for corn, soybean, and cotton producers.
“That’s targeted weed control in season,” Barry said. “We see a savings of roughly 50 per cent on herbicide use.”
This system uses cameras and AI to see, target, and control weeds. For small grains producers, there’s See and Spray Select.
“It’s a green on brown technology where you can spray fallow ground,” Barry said. “You can upgrade a 2018 or newer sprayer with targeted control for fallow, as well we variable rate in season, whether you’re doing some type of desiccation of canola or something else.”
Barry encourages producers considering any of these upgrades to speak with a Deere rep.
“There’s a lot of information and it can be daunting,” he said. “I’d just encourage them to work with their local dealer to figure out what the best solution is for their farm.”