2010 Press Releases

Modern farming is all about getting the best out of a piece of land, no matter where you live or what conditions you face. The key to this is fine tuning the operation, and that’s where precision agriculture steps in.

“The heart of the John Deere system is the receiver,” says Paul Galletly, AMS Consultant for Drummond and Etheridge in Ashburton. “It’s a dual frequency receiver, which means it gets signals from two satellites roving above. Single frequency receivers can tend to wander.”

No farm has flat, perfectly rectangular paddocks, and an Ag Management Solution (AMS) helps the farmer to make use of every inch of land.

“It also has built-in terrain compensation,” Paul continues, “so if you’re on a hill it compensates for that. The StarFire™ correction signal comes from a stationary satellite to hubs owned and operated by John Deere. That’s an exclusive and why we can get up to 2.5 centimetre pass-to-pass accuracy.”

“Efficiency and productivity increase is one side of the coin, but you also take the concentration level of the operator down. This is a huge advantage for the owner operator who is pulling long days. But the driver also gets the chance to turn around and see what the implement behind is doing.”

“It saves inputs as well as time. You don’t spend as much on fertiliser, sprays, diesel, so costs come down. You can make huge inroads in spraying and spreading because chemical costs are so high. I talked to a customer a while back, and we didn’t work it out to the cent, but he reckoned he was saving a dollar a hectare in spraying. Those sorts of savings really start to add up.”

The John Deere AMS is also highly transferable. “All we need to run our systems is a power inlet,” says Paul. “They can go in any colour tractor.”

“But it doesn’t matter what technology you’re using, you’ve got to have support for it. This is where John Deere is a step above. There are layers of support, so there’s always someone available to back up the operators. I make sure I check in on all my customers regularly to make sure they’re getting the best out of the system. You won’t catch us standing still.”

For more information on John Deere Ag Management Solutions, visit our Web site or FREECALL 1800 800 981 in Australia and 0800 303 100 in New Zealand to contact your local John Deere dealer.

John Deere (Deere & Company - NYSE: DE) is the world's leading provider of advanced products and services for agriculture and forestry and a major provider of advanced products and services for construction, lawn and turf care, landscaping and irrigation. John Deere also provides financial services worldwide and manufactures and markets engines used in heavy equipment. Since it was founded in 1837, the company has extended its heritage of integrity, quality, commitment and innovation around the globe.