“Our team is dedicated to developing practical ways to help forage producers make the most of their available labor and get the most out of their time in the field,”

said Vermeer Research and Development Manager Kent Thompson.

“We work to identify solutions that producers don’t even realize are possible, all focused around their hay operation.”

These advancements build on a history of innovation at Vermeer, which is celebrating 50 years of its large round baler — an innovation that changed the way hay and forage producers feed and fuel the world.

Autonomous Bale Mover

The bale mover concept, nicknamed “Bale Hawk” will travel around the field autonomously via onboard sensors to locate bales, pick them up and move them to a predetermined location.

“This machine helps save labor time and associated costs, by eliminating the manual step of moving bales. The autonomous bale mover senses where it is relative to a bale, allowing it to plan a route to pick up that bale. Today, it can pick up three bales at a time before delivering and unloading them to a predetermined location,”

said Thompson.

Onboard Bearing Temp Sensors

These wireless, battery-powered temperature sensors will help operators monitor baler bearing temperatures from the cab, helping to provide predictive maintenance notices to operators before the bearing reaches its end-of-life.

“When given this information ahead of time, operators can order new bearings and replace them before they reach the end-of-life or fail due to contamination, which helps keep balers in the field when it matters most,”

said Vermeer Forage Innovations Senior Engineer Nathan Dockter.

Automated Baling Assistance Technology

This windrow guidance system for the Vermeer ZR5-1200 self-propelled baler will use light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors to track the windrow and automatically steer the machine.

“The automation can allow the operator to focus on other aspects of the baling process — it is a step towards us taking the guesswork out of creating a consistent, good-looking bale,”

said Vermeer Forage Innovations Senior Systems Engineer Gary Burns.

Field Data Management App

The Forage Commander app will connect the user’s smart device via Bluetooth to the data gateway unit located on the baler to provide the latest field stats for each customer, including bale weight, bale moisture, bales per hour, and more. From this data and customer information, the Forage Commander can generate an invoice to email directly to the operator’s customer.

“This app is really designed for an operator who wants to better understand their productivity in the field or is looking for a more convenient tool to help manage their custom hay operation,”

said Vermeer Product Manager Shawn Wang.

Source: Vermeer

The post Vermeer Innovation Concepts Address Agricultural Labor Challenges appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

For a very long time the tiltrotator has been relatively unknown outside the Nordics. Thanks to Engcon’s effective communication work sharing information via their website, trade shows, advertising, press releases, articles, social media and influencer marketing, the concept has become a global phenomenon. At this year’s largest construction trade show, Conexpo in Las Vegas, it became clear that many attendees were aware of the phenomenon and familiar through articles and videos of how it helped excavators work smarter.

”From the fact that the excavator previously only dug a pit, new accessories have developed the excavator into a multi-tool that can dig, lift, pack, sweep… Most contractors want to be able to take on more jobs and solve them faster and smarter to make more money. We believe that the tiltrotator is the key to that,”

says Krister Blomgren, CEO of Engcon Group.

Engcon has been working with its motto “Change the world of digging” for a long time and decided in 2020 to also use it as its vision.

“That is exactly what we want to do in the long run! If we can get more excavators to be equipped with a tiltrotator, digging will be more profitable, efficient, flexible, environmentally friendly and also safer. We are simply changing the digging world,”

says Krister Blomgren.

Only 2-3 percent of the world’s excavators today have a tiltrotator, which means that there is an enormous development potential for streamlining the industry and making it more environmentally friendly by using less resources in the form of materials, fuel and time.

”To invest in a tiltrotator is to invest in the future and we believe that it is only a matter of time before it expands in larger markets like the USA. It is simply impossible to ignore the tiltrotator’s advantages,”

Krister Blomgren concludes.

The post Engcon shares and spreads the concept of tiltrotator appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.