Forage maize yield measurements in real time during harvesting,

May 2006
John Austin Ltd has over 20 tractors, two combine harvesters, three forage harvesters, sprayers, trucks and other agricultural machinery. The business has operated since 1980 and now specialises in agricultural contracting for the dairy industry, mainly in maize forage.

The company also promotes precision farming through the application of GPS technology. Grain yield monitoring has been joined by forage yield monitoring, which is the latest application of the technology.

Precision Agriculture

Precision agriculture is the practice of measuring a variable (e.g. yield), identify the latitude & longitude, logging that data, and then using that information to optimise crop & forage production. That can also be translated into an income map.

Yield maps are very useful tools for calculating the financial gains possible if yields could be lifted in the lower yielding areas of the paddock. Yield maps can also assist the manager when making input decisions (e.g. nitrogen application rates etc).

Maize yield mapping

Advantages of forage yield mapping include identifying lower yielding areas and being precise with Pioneer ULV inoculants application. It also gives the ability to measure accurate DM tonnages being transported to farmers purchasing maize silage.

In the future we will have the ability to measure protein, energy levels and starch.

The process takes place with three major inputs:

Weight of green (wet) material -- established by the forage harvester

The moisture content established by NIR reader on the spout of the chopper

The GPS plotting system onboard the harvester.

The John Deere precision agriculture programme puts that information together to create the yield maps. Then the farmer, advisor and contractor work out the usefulness of the information and what might be done differently in future on the paddock, to maximise the effectiveness of the crop inputs.

Further developments

If maize yields vary then so too must grass, lucerne and cereal forage yields vary.

Almost all the same application technologies used in Precision Farming for maize will apply for grass production. Over the next few years we will be investigating ways in which we can use this technology to improve pasture production & quality.