There are a lot of places to collect data on the farm — the tractor, the sprayer, the combine. But what about the grain cart? The move to big carts to match ever-bigger combines helps productivity, but that cart can also add data cloud capabilities, advance reporting tools and sharable information — novel ap­proaches that are making a difference.

About four years ago, Avery Weigh- Tronix introduced Field Foreman, a sys­tem for collecting information from the grain cart.

“We’ve rolled out plenty of improve­ments since then,” says Billy Folkerts, product manager. “We built our own touch screen, and guys like to use it to get reliable harvest information.”

USB sticks move data from cart to computer, where Avery Weigh-Tronix has software to generate reports and information about what was harvested and where the grain went, such as to bins or the elevator.

He notes the company is working on a range of innovations for early 2015. Visit agscales.com.

Hit the cloud

Unverferth rolled out its first version of UHarvest at the 2013 Farm Progress Show. For 2014, the product got an up­grade that lets you generate detailed re­ports from cart loads.

A new reporting feature has been added to UHarvest from Unverferth, allowing users to generate more complete harvest details for farm analysis.

The system already helps a user manage loads from grain cart to over-the-road truck to balance and manage weight for transport.

The new reporting tool shows you at a glance where your grain went and in­cludes information on final yield. Un­verferth says with its moisture sensor and weight system, it offers accurate yield information from the field.

And it can calibrate your combine, too.

Unverferth has teamed up with Raven and its Slingshot cloud. To move information from terminal to cloud storage, you would use your data service on your cellphone or tablet; the UHarvest system would then use Wi-Fi to transfer the information.

Visit uharvest.net.

Leveraging a system

The Agrimatics system provides soft­ware to capture grain cart informa­tion. Two companies are marketing a product based on the system — J&M Manufacturing and Central City Scale.

For J&M, the iFarm system can cap­ture and email grain cart information. The system works with iPads and select Android devices. A cloud service is in the works to store that information for easier sharing with others.

“We purchase iFarm from Agrimatics,” says Mitchell Wood, iFarm manager for J&M. “They designed a system custom-tailored for J&M with exclusive options that our customers desire” — an op­tional moisture sensor and an auto-gate shutoff system.

J&M leaders have united Agrimatics and AgLeader technology for yield moni­tor sensor technology they say turns their grain cart into a weigh wagon. The cloud service should be ready this fall. Visit jm-inc.com, or circle 123.

Over at Central City Scale, which offers customers a range of weighing and measuring systems, the Agrimatics solution is being marketed as Libra.

“They really paid attention to detail in the design,” says Matt Hawthorne, with information technology and sales at Central City Scale. “Primarily right now, these systems are a way to gen­erate information for Federal Crop Insurance and record weight transac­tions,” Hawthorne says.

Visit ccscales.com.

Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to Farm Industry News Now e-newsletter to get the latest news and more straight to your inbox twice weekly.