Precision Farming“We seek salva­tion in tech­nology”

It’s a foggy, and grey November morning in northern Schleswig-Holstein, near Flens­burg, but the atmos­phere in Elke Tramsen’s bright and warm kitchen is quite different. Elke, wife of Hans-Peter, senior manager of Tramsen GbR in Dollerup, is hosting her first of three meet­ings – morning, lunchtime and evening – in the cosy kitchen, keeping everyone well-fed. At the long kitchen table, the team members don’t just eat sand­wiches and drink coffee, but also share stories, exchange infor­ma­tion and discuss daily work tasks. When the meal is over everyone knows what needs to be done.

The team consists of Jakob, the junior manager who over­sees oper­a­tions and his wife Isabel, who takes care of the book­keeping; Jörn, an agri­cul­tural busi­ness manager and fitter, who main­tains the biogas plant, work­shop and occa­sion­ally looks after crop fertil­i­sa­tion and protec­tion; Yvonne, a Master of Science, is respon­sible for the live­stock. while Alex, a young agri­cul­tural busi­ness manager, over­sees field­work and sets up the John Deere Oper­a­tions Center on the trac­tors.

The team is completed by three appren­tices who are involved in and eagerly follow the discus­sions between the managers and the more expe­ri­enced employees.

Diver­si­fied mixed farm

“We are a mixed farm with dairy and arable produc­tion, sow and piglet rearing, and renew­able ener­gies with biogas, wind and PV. We farm 465 hectares, and a partner farm adds another 120 hectares,” explains Jakob.

“The farm has around 60 hectares of grass­land, and the rest is arable that is culti­vated with a five-crop rota­tion of rape­seed, wheat, barley, corn and broad beans.”

A new cowshed, built in 2019, houses 250 dairy cows, dry cows and young cattle. Milking is carried out by four robots, while other robots push feed and clean floors. Though they have consid­ered switching to organic prac­tises, the Tram­sens have priori­tised inno­v­a­tive tech­nical solu­tions to main­tain sustain­ability and effi­ciency.

New trac­tors in full use

Last year, after discus­sions with John Deere dealer Rebo, the team and their partner company decided to replace their entire fleet of trac­tors, ordering six new John Deere 6R trac­tors, with different engine outputs (2x 6R 250, 1x 6R 230, 2x 6R 185 and 1x 6R 150). The trac­tors were deliv­ered in the autumn, and some of them have already clocked up more than 1,000 oper­ating hours.

“I think that these might be the last classic trac­tors we buy,” says Jakob. “The next trac­tors may well be able to drive them­selves.” To take full advan­tage of the new fleet of trac­tors, all avail­able licences for precise steering (RTK signal), advanced steering and preci­sion farming were purchased.

The deci­sion did not come easily, espe­cially for the ‘pony’, the 6R 150, that is primarily used to pull the feed mixer wagon, but Jakob sees a range of advan­tages for the busi­ness with the changes.

The 6R 250 with central tire infla­tion system is primarily used for tillage but can also pull a slurry tanker.

The 6R 150 normally pulls the feed mixer wagon.

Field mapping and work orders

With the new fleet in place, Alex remea­sured all the field bound­aries using RTK signals. This ensures that all the fields farmed by the Tram­sens, and their partner farm, are stored in the John Deere Oper­a­tions Center and can be displayed on a map.

Jakob can now create precise work orders, spec­i­fying the imple­ment and its width, the oper­ating depth or appli­ca­tion rate of the imple­ment and the plan­ning of guid­ance tracks.

When plan­ning the tracks, Jakob ensures that any obsta­cles in the field, like elec­tricity pylons, are consid­ered and that the work in the field is carried out effi­ciently. The work orders are then sent directly to the tractor via JDLink and can be viewed and acti­vated directly by the oper­a­tors via their in-cab displays.

Every­thing in view with the Oper­a­tions Centre

Tramsen GbR’s fields are spread over a radius of around 18 kilo­me­tres around the farm. Jakob moni­tors them from his office, where a large screen displays real-time tractor loca­tions, fuel levels, and if there are any oper­a­tional issues.

By accessing the display of an indi­vidual machine, Jakob can see exactly what it is doing and whether there are any poten­tial issues. This way, he can give his employees instruc­tions and sugges­tions for improve­ment directly from the office via his mobile phone, without having to drive out to the field himself.

Until recently, the Tram­sens had few ISOBUS-capable imple­ments on their farm, but they have now purchased a sprayer that is equipped with ISOBUS and offers the option to shut-off boom sections and vari­able control of the appli­ca­tion rate. This marks their entry into preci­sion farming, using vari­able rate appli­ca­tion maps and expert systems. “Every­thing has the same goal – saving money through contin­uous opti­mi­sa­tion and working in a more resource-effi­cient and sustain­able way,” says Finn Bonde, the sales consul­tant from John Deere dealer Rebo.

Consis­tent oper­a­tion and high flex­i­bility

One of the main reasons for upgrading the tractor fleet was the desire for a stan­dard­ised oper­ating concept, making the trac­tors inter­change­able across different tasks. For example, the 6R 250 equipped with a fully auto­matic central tire infla­tion system is primarily used for tillage, but it can also tow a slurry tanker. The 6R 150 is mainly used to pull the feed mixer wagon, but it can be used for spraying or grass turning.

As the farm’s preci­sion farming expert, Alex is respon­sible for putting the idea of a stan­dard­ised oper­ating concept into prac­tice. His favourite tractor is the 6R 185 which he uses for creating and config­uring a new imple­ment in the John Deere Oper­a­tions Center. When assigning the switches, Alex pays atten­tion to ergonomics and machine oper­a­tion. Once an imple­ment is set up on one tractor, the settings can be copied to the rest of the fleet, ensuring seam­less oper­a­tion for the other users.  

Sequence programmed in the Oper­a­tions Center for lowering a mulcher. With the iTec func­tion, the entire sequence can be executed at the single push of a button.

Imple­ment selec­tion list on the control terminal of a 6R tractor.

Automa­tion makes life easier

After the new trac­tors arrived, the field bound­aries and head­lands were measured using the RTK signal. With head­land turn automa­tion, the tractor can carry out the entire turning sequence inde­pen­dently, although this requires large fields that don’t exist in the north of Schleswig-Holstein. Making work easier, Alex has programmed work steps like switching off the PTO shaft or lifting an imple­ment, for each imple­ment using iTec. So, the oper­ator can concen­trate fully on the actual turning of the tractor.

The next trac­tors may well be able to drive them­selves.

Jakob Tramsen

 
For simpler work like field cultivation, the less precise SF2 signal is used, and when culti­vating, it is advis­able not to follow the preset tram­lines exactly, but to drive at a slight angle to them. The Quick­line func­tion is avail­able in the Oper­a­tion Center for this purpose, for which Alex has devel­oped working instruc­tions that employees and appren­tices can use to create the tracks them­selves.

Thanks to Alex’s prepara­tory work, the appren­tices like Per can carry out diffi­cult field work comfort­ably, precisely and effi­ciently. At the same time, they learn through listening and exper­i­menting how modern agri­cul­tural tech­nology works and hope­fully under­stand that the vital work in agri­cul­ture can be an attrac­tive profes­sion.