Developments in

on-harvester

quality monitoring.

Phillip Clancy, Ashley Wakefield, Brett Whelan

Next Instruments Pty Ltd B1, 366 Edgar Street, Condell Park, NSW, Australia

CropScan NIR Analysers

CropScan NIR On Farm Analysers

CropScan 2000G: 2000 CropScan 2000B: 2003

CropScan 1000B: 2005

CropScan 1000G: 2008

CropScan 3000S: 2014 CropScan 3000H: 2013

CropScan 3000H

Sample Head Development: 2003 to 2015

Plunger 2003

Oscillating Vane 2006

Brush Wheel 2008

Flap System 2013

CropScan 3000H

CropScan 3000H On Combine Analyser

3 Components: NIT Spectrometer Sampling Head Touch Screen PC

3000H SCHEMATIC

CropScan 3000H

TECHNOLOGY

CropScan 3000H

Sample

• Light passes through a sample of grain by reflecting off the kernels.

• NIR energy is absorbed by Protein, Moisture, Oil and Starch in the grain.

• The same transmission technology used at the receival silos, ie, FGIS,

GrainCorp, Viterra and CBH.

- Transflectance

SAMPLING

HEAD

CropScan 3000H

• Large open channel • Top and Bottom Vanes • Sensor – detects when

the chamber is full • Easy access • Variable Pathlength for

different seeds.

CropScan 3000H

Lens

Slit Diffraction Grating

Fibre Optic

Cable

Detector

TECHNOLOGY: DIODE ARRAY SPECTROMETER

CropScan 3000H

Diode Array Technology

• Used in Cameras, Flatbed Scanners, Photocopiers

• Use a 38-elements silicon diode array detector

• Good for measuring in the 2-4 abs units range

• High signal to noise ratio

• No Moving Parts

• Compact, Robust, Lower Cost

TECHNOLOGY

CropScan 3000H

TECHNOLOGY

Protein, Moisture, Oil and Starch absorb at the same

frequencies for all grains and oil seeds

CropScan 3000H

CropScan Accuracy

CropScan 3000H

Touch Screen PC Controller and Display Module

• 10.4 inch PC

• Windows 7 Operating System

• Two Serial and USB Ports

• Wireless Connectivity

• Remote Access and Diagnostics

• Pop Up Keyboard

CropScan 3000H Design

CropScan 3000H

• Protein, Moisture

and Oil Readings

• Bin by Bin Averaging

• Real Time Paddock Map

• Trend Plots and Displayed data

In Cabin Touch Screen PC

CropScan 3000H

Grain Data Management System

• Segregate in the paddock

• Blend in the paddock

• Monitor the harvest remotely

• Provide real time data to your broker, a buyer or web portal

CropScan 3000H

Precision Agriculture Benefits

• Monitor grain quality at a high spatial density

• Differential harvesting and storage based on quality

• Protein, Moisture and Yield maps enable

creation of true site specific gross margin maps

CropScan 3000H

Precision Agriculture Benefits

• Nitrogen removal maps to be used in mass balance fertiliser requirement calculations

• Overlaying Protein and Yield maps with other data for better diagnostic insights into availability and uptake of Nitrogen

• Full impact of N trials and VRF applications

can be measured

CropScan 3000H Data vs Vitera

CropScan 3000H

Return on Investment

Ashley Wakefield, Tintara, Urania, SA

• Paddocks 221A & 221B

• Total area 185ha

• Average Yield = 4.5t/ha =832.5t

• Top Half of each paddock was reading

below 10.5% protein

• Bottom half of paddock was reading

above 10.5% protein

• By blending we delivered 17 out of 18

truck loads as APW grade over ASW

• Increased Profit by blending:

• = $6900 $37.29/ha

CropScan 3000H

Precision Agriculture Benefits Ashley Wakefield, Tintara, Urania, SA, Paddock 146A

• Yield and Protein maps show inverse relationship, r=-0.46 • Supports Dilution Theory • Nitrogen limited. Suggests more Nitrogen.

CropScan 3000H

Precision Agriculture Benefits

• Low Yield and High Protein = Sufficient Nitrogen, Moisture Limited • Wasting Nitrogen on low Yield areas.

Ashley Wakefield, Tintara, Urania, SA, Paddock 146A

CropScan 3000H

Precision Agriculture Benefits

• No correlation between Yield and Protein, r=-0.02 • Difficult to implement Nitrogen management

Ashley Wakefield, Tintara, Urania, SA, Paddock 146B

CropScan 3000H

Precision Agriculture Benefits

• Areas of Positive Correlation and Areas of Negative Correlation • Negative Areas = Available Moisture limited by soil/landscape • Positive Areas = Nitrogen Limited, Increase Nitrogen Potential

Ashley Wakefield, Tintara, Urania, SA, Paddock 146B

CropScan 3000H

Current Users

3 CropScan 3000H

2 CropScan 3000H

23 CropScan 3000H

CropScan 3000H

Current Users

CropScan 3000H

Concluding Remarks • 12 Years in development. Not a trivial task.

• Thanks to perserverance from Ashely Wakefield,

Graham Mann, Graham Popperwell, Paul Hicks and Adam Inchbold.

• 2013 Finally a reliable and accurate sampling head

• 2014 CropNet... Cloud based data access

• 2015... CropScan 3000H On Combine and CropScan 3000S On Silo Analysers... All Systems Go.