Analyzing Harvest Data

[hogrefetylerw]

Question: My perception is the only reason to gather and analyze harvest data is to apply the information learned to next year's operations.

Answer: One of the key benefits of gathering harvest information is to apply the insights to the next growing season, but that is not the only opportunity. Harvest information can provide a tremendous amount of value when made available in real-time as well. With the new John Deere Harvest Mobile product, information about the harvest can be streamed to John Deere Operations Center where managers can remotely evaluate how the job is being completed from their computer or tablet. Based on the harvest information provided, managers can evaluate moisture levels to determine drying needs, evaluate yields to address truck needs and ensure that the job is being executed correctly in the field. This can all be made possible, but it requires operators to document the harvest information.

[hogrefetylerw]

Absolutely, yield information needs to be accurate if you intend on using it to make decisions. The best place to ensure data accuracy is in the cab. Today, if you want to keep your yield totals accurate in the cab you should perform a multi-point calibration. A multi-point calibration is when you should harvest 5-7 loads of grain at varying moisture levels and at different speeds. This approach reduces your potential error in yield totals, helping ensure your totals are accurate and ready to use for decision making. You will likely have to do several multi-point calibrations throughout the harvest season. John Deere recommends doing a multi-point calibration when conditions change. Examples of that include: change in crop type, change in variety and significant changes in moisture levels. This process can be time consuming; for that reason John Deere has announced a new product that will be coming to the market soon called John Deere Active Yield. John Deere Active Yield is a retrofitable product for S Series combines that leverages three load cells in the grain tank that will continuously calibrate the machine as you harvest. After you perform the initial multi-point calibration in the beginning of the year, Active Yield allows you to reduce data inaccuracy, focus on getting the crop out of the ground and remove the need for addition calibrations, even in varying conditions.  Users can also post calibrate yield information in John Deere Operations Center based on scale tickets if you choose to correct data after harvest.

[hogrefetylerw]

You should keep your yield monitor calibrated regularly. Variety changes, significant changes in moisture levels and crop changes all can influence the accuracy of your totals. Capturing quality yield data will be key in evaluating the effectiveness of decisions made in seeding and in application. While you may be able to get some insight in the field about what input decisions worked best, taking your data to a software for further analysis will be a better way to understand what decisions made the biggest difference.

[hogrefetylerw]

There are two parts to my answer, what we are doing today and where we are headed.

Where we are today: John Deere is working diligently to provide growers more choice when it comes to collecting and analyzing data. Today, John Deere works with companies worldwide so that they can easily consume our data into their software applications, giving customers the option to pick the software that makes sense for their business. Additionally, the John Deere Operations Center recently began opening its compatibility by consuming data from Ag Leader displays.

Where we are going: John Deere is actively involved in an industry-wide initiative through AgGateway to make data interoperable. This will not only allow John Deere data to move more seamlessly to other software programs, it will also allow data from more non-John Deere displays to move to the John Deere Operations Center, again, providing users more options based on their unique needs.

[hogrefetylerw]

All,

Thanks for all of the great questions. I am signing off for now, but will be checking back in later today and the coming days for any further questions.

If you are considering using your information to make decisions, start by having a conversation with your local John Deere dealer.

Thanks again for your participation,

Tyler Hogrefe

Senior Technical Product Manager

John Deere

[hogrefetylerw]

That is a great series of questions and I would highly recommend you continue to ask those questions to the people and companies you are trusting to store your information. A few years ago, John Deere made their stance on data security well known by publishing information related the value, transparency and control of data. This approach has made it easy for growers to understand what John Deere is doing with information and the options they have to enable or restrict data access. Anyone interested in John Deere’s stance on data security can access it at www.JohnDeere.com/Trust.