The pandemic put a lot of things on hold for the past 18 months, but advances in agriculture technology is not one of them.
“There are a lot of new innovations; technology has not slowed with the pandemic,” said David Fiddler, Agri-Trade show manager.
This year, the show’s Ag Innovations Award program saw more applicants than it’s ever had. A panel of judges narrowed those down to five finalists, who will compete for a $20,000 grand prize in an event that gives them five minutes to pitch the merits of their product. The competition takes place on Nov. 11 (at 3 p.m.). Attendees in the audience will have the opportunity to vote for the winner of the Farmer’s Choice Award, who will receive $5,000.
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The five finalists and their entries are:
Agtron Enterprises: Agtron Legend 260+
Older seeding electronics can be hard to find and expensive to replace.
The Agtron Legend 260+ replaces old air cart electronics and can monitor up to six sensors — fan speed, bin level, meter r.p.m., ground speed, displays seeding rate and blockage. The wiring harness is plug and play, taking little time to set up the monitor.
Cab clutter is reduced, and the farmer has confidence their field is seeded correctly without the dreaded skips and strips, Agtron says.
Founded in a basement in 1982, the company describes itself as “one of Canada’s leaders in agricultural electronics” and now operates out of a 16,000-square-foot facility in Saskatoon.
ClicR Technologies: ClicRweight
Weighing cattle or swine on a conventional scale is time and labour intensive.
The ClicRweight Swine and Bovine solution is billed as a “scaleless weighing system.”
ClicR Technologies says it has created a unique proprietary technology that utilizes 3D digital imagery, cutting-edge software and algorithms to scan and weigh an animal. For cattle, the system is set up in a pole shed with a water trough in it. When a cow, which has a tag in its right ear, comes to get a drink of water, the system scans it and produces a weight.
The Florida company says the system’s estimate of an animal’s weight is within four per cent of its actual weight and that provides average daily gain data instantly 24-7. That information allows producers to improve performance and profitability, it says.
Intelligent Ag Solutions: Recon SpraySense
Blocked nozzles on sprayers can be costly to farmers, reducing yields, potentially causing herbicide-resistance weeds, and wasting chemical. But it is extremely difficult to visually identify flow problems on sprayer nozzles.
Intelligent Ag, headquartered at North Dakota State University, says it spent five years researching various issues with spraying quality in order to produce Recon SpraySense. It allows for real-time monitoring of flow rate and pressure at every nozzle.
It has blockage detection featuring instant notifications of current or emergent flow or pressure problems. It features an iPad app with a user-friendly dashboard that has nozzle-by-nozzle details and preloaded specs for over 8,000 nozzle tips.
Pawlution Ltd.: RCFarm Arm
Climbing up and down into the cab of the tractor to turn on and off a PTO while running an auger may be a thing of the past, says the inventor of the RCFarm Arm.
Invented by Grande Prairie grain farmer Vincent Pawluski, the RCFarm Arm allows for wireless control of a tractor for any stationary PTO work. Overlaying armrest controls and the ignition key, the RCFarm Arm installs quickly with no additional wiring.
Once the modules are secure and plugged into the tractor’s accessory power port, the operator has control of the tractor from wherever they are standing. The controls start and stop the engine, engage or disengage the PTO, and have two hydraulic on/off functions, and four customizable functions.
There is a safety interlock on the PTO engage and engine start controls requiring two buttons to be simultaneously depressed together.
Rodono Industries: ACX-Air Cart Xtend
Most air cart loading augers or conveyers don’t reach under hopper-bottom trailers.
The ACX is a retracting kit that mounts onto existing air cart augers allowing it to extend and swing at the end of the cart loading system. It utilizes factory auger mounts and extends easily under hopper-bottom trailers to unload multiple hoppers without moving the truck, says Rodono Industries, a family-owned manufacturer located in Clive (east of Lacombe).
The ACX Xtend is made up of two parts. One is a hopper/electrical/tube assembly, which is standard to all models. The second, the rail/collector assembly, is specific to the model of air cart.
The kit extends the auger 10 feet and can pivot 80 degrees. There is a mover for switching between hoppers and comes with a remote and manual controls. Currently kits are available for the following carts: JD 1910, Case 3445, and Bourgault 6550.
The kit increases flexibility and decreases time for loading the air cart, Rodono says.
