Creating Yield Maps &

Turning them into

Money Making

Management Tools

presented by:

George Vellidis

for the Precision Farming Team

National Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory

Part of Presentation given at Smart Farming, Putra Malaysia

Variability, What Variability?

Low altitude aerial

photo of field TR03

Peanuts, Spring 1997

The Power of the Yield Map

1996

peanut

yield

map

Comparison of parasitic nematode

incidence to peanut yield

Sequential Profit Maps

corn map

1996corn map

1995

peanut map

1997

$200 and above

-$200 and below

-$100 to $100

Field A10

Early County, Georgia

Grain Yield Monitors

The first yield monitors

Available commercially for at least 5 years

At least 5 companies offering systemsJohn Deere (GreenStar)

Case IH (AFS – Advanced Farming Systems)

CLAAS – Quantimeter

AGCO – FieldStar

Ag Leader (independent)

Micro Trak (independet)

Customized for more than 70 combines

Reliable, user friendly, excellent support

Display has multiple uses

moisture sensor

force plate

yield sensor

PF3000 Display

Ag Leader force plate yield sensor

Universal displaycan mark problem areas

in or landmarks in fields

touchscreen interface

force plate

yield sensor

moisture sensorAFS display

John Deere

C - display

B – moisture sensor

A – force plate yield sensor

Quantimeter

Quantimeter Display

Level Detector

Paddle Wheel

Claydon Yield-O-Meter

volumetric grain yield

monitor

AGCO

Fieldstar terminal

(standard on all combines)GPS control unit

implement

computerdata card and

data card reader

office PC & printer

(not included)

Interpreting Corn Yield Maps

A – variety change

B – drainage problems

C – low wet area

D – recently cleared land

E – end row compaction

F – soil type change

G – mechanical problem

H – grassed waterway

80 180120 160

Yield – bu/ac

1998 Corn Yield MapAverage Yield: 175.3 bu/ac

Area: 35.4 acres

Malfunctioning Sprinklers

Cotton Yield Monitors

Used mostly in the U.S. and Australia

Available commercially for the past 4 years

At least 4 companies offering systems

Agriplan/Zycom

Ag Leader

Farmscan

Micro Trak

Early Commercial Systems

Zycom

MicroTrakBoth commercially available systems evaluated 1997 &1998

Zycom

Uses 3 infrared light emitters and receptors per sensor

Counts when cotton passing through duct breaks infrared beam

Emitters

Micro-Trak

Uses 8 infrared light emitters and receptors per sensor

Counts when cotton passing through duct breaks infrared beam

closed unit

open unit

Emitters

Graintrak

Field Evaluation

harvest with

yield monitors empty into

boll buggy

weigh load

1998 Yield Maps

63 acres

aerial photo

ZycomMicroTrak

Zycom Micro-Trak

DPL 5415 RR

DPL 5690 RR

0-1/2 Bale

½-1 Bale

1-1½ Bale

1½-2 Bale

2+ Bale

Variety Testing by a Farmer

Campbell Scientific

Designed for crops which pass

over a conveyor during harvesting

Root crops – potatoes, sugar beets,

onions, horseradish, etc. (USA)

Processing tomatoes (California)

Grapes (Australia)

Campbell Scientific

load cell supporting

conveyor idler

Sensors Load cells

Travel speed

Belt speed

Run/hold

GPS

potato harvester

horseradish harvester

Peanut Yield Monitoring System (PYMS) --

Profit Monitoring

PYMS Components

5k load cellsdata acquisition

board

Omnistar DGPS

antenna

palmtop computer

swath width

indicator

junction box

Field Testing: Peanut Harvest

diggingharvesting

harvesting

Field Testing: Emptying Basket

Field Testing: Weighing

• Four Intercomp 5000 kg portable scales

• Accuracy ±1% of total load

• Interconnect cable for totalizing and zeroing

• Sturdy, all aluminum, and self-contained

Tree Crops

Pecans (similar

to walnuts)

Citrus (oranges

and grapefruit)

Pecan Yield Monitoring

Prototype monitor developed during 1998

Preliminary testing conducted over approximately 12 ha

Initial data look promising but many issues yet to be addressed

Pecan Harvesting

shaking the treesharvesting wind rows

harvester conveyer

and traileremptying

harvesting trailer

1998 Pecan Yield Map

Low

Medium

High

Mitchell County, GA

November 1998

11 ha

Citrus Yield Monitoring

Prototype monitor developed

during 1999 by University of Florida

Preliminary testing conducted over

approximately 63 ha

Creating a Yield Map

aerial photo

of orchard

location of

fruit tubs

GPS event

recorder

63 ha

1999 Citrus Yield Map

600

400

400

500

500

Vegetable Yield Monitoring

Just beginning to address in Georgia

Many difficulties

Market vegetables harvested manually

by migrant laborers

Laborers paid by amount harvested

Harvesting procedures vary greatly

from farm to farm

Who’s Job Is It?

It’s the research community’s responsibility to develop and evaluate yield monitoring technologies so that our clientele has assurance in these products.