Cereals 2019: Technology to tickle your fancy,.... and more

Trimble’s sister company AS Communications has launched a new seed counting system for air drills, using optical sensors.

The USC-Pro system from Italian manufacturer MC Electronics eases calibration by counting seeds against a desired seed rate input by the operator on a virtual terminal and adjusting metering and distribution accordingly.

Blockage monitoring, variable rate seeding and tramlining can also be incorporated and the modular design of the system allows it to be fitted to a wide range of drills. An ECU IsoBus bridge offers compatibility with universal terminals on tractors and the company can also offer remote monitoring for easier troubleshooting.

CNH Industrial recently announced the introduction of the AgXtend range of precision farming equipment and several of the products have been working on farm this spring.

The Isaria crop scanner is a familiar tool for identifying variation in growing crops which can be addressed by varying nitrogen applications, but the CropXplorer version uses LED lights which have a 50,000 hour service life and thus don’t require users to enter into a service contract.

Operators can choose to tailor nitrogen applications to even up the crop or to ‘push’ better performing areas. The data can also be overlaid onto yield potential maps for further fine tuning; IsoBus compatibility allows the CropXplorer to input to the rate controller of any suitably equipped fertiliser spreader.