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A spraying drone in action.
Drones are gaining more popularity in the rural sector as users realise they offer the potential to improve productivity, health and safety and ultimately reduce costs.
Indeed, while drone use probably started out as taking photos and making videos from a different perspective, they have now moved into the realms of crop assessment, monitoring of remote areas and water lines and targeted weed or crop spraying.
Ferntech, the distributor for the well known DJI range, returns to Fieldays 2023, with several examples of what drone adoption has to offer. The DJI Agras T40 Spraying Drone is designed for precision spraying and spreading, allowing operators to accurately spot spray plants, reducing the cost of expensive chemicals, while eliminating costs such a diesel, with environmental benefits such as reduced emissions, no ground compaction or bank destabilisation. Equipped with a 40L tank capacity, the T40 can efficiently spread and spray over 120ha per day, flying across steep terrain, boundaries, and gullies in a fraction of the time and with zero risk.
For livestock farmers, the DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise Barking Drone, easily herds and move your livestock across large distances, by combining a loudspeaker with recorded audio, such as a dog’s bark or a siren, at the same time cutting fuel usage, offering improved health and safety outcomes, and freeing up time taken for manual inspections.
In addition, with a 20-megapixel camera equipped with a 56x hybrid zoom function, users gain greater visibility and flexibility and the ability to cover more ground in less time.
This might include identifying and locating animals, detecting leaks in tanks and irrigation lines, or checking boundary fences.
Ease of use is enhanced with a clever waypoint feature, allowing operators to set up a predetermined route, from where the drone automatically flies along the predetermined path.
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With the biannual Italian EIMA machinery Expo less than a month away, Case IH has taken out a Technical Evolution award for the Advanced Vehicle Suspension system available on its Optum 360–440 series tractors.
The Advanced Vehicle Suspension system, available on Optum 360, 390, and 440 models, responds to changing conditions, automatically adjusting how the suspension reacts to absorbs shocks and controlling vehicle movement.
In operation, sensors monitor the vibrations transmitted from the tractor chassis to the operator cabin, allowing the system to adjust suspension damping in real time. The control system incorporates key priorities, such as comfort at lower speeds and stability as speed increases, while also reacting to factors such as lower tyre pressures, where the tyres absorb more of the initial shock.
Case IH said as suspension requirements change throughout the working day, as tractors move between the paddock and road transport, the system manages suspension response in the background as tasks, speeds and conditions change, leaving the operator without the need to make manual adjustments.
Richard Hollins, Optum series tractors global product manager, said: “Pioneering technology must earn its place in the working day. Farmers and contractors will judge an investment by what it delivers, including manageable ownership costs, dependable up-time and the versatility to tackle different jobs. With AVS, we are putting intelligent control to work for comfort and stability, without giving the operator another setting to manage.”
Organised by FederUnacoma, the Italian Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Federation, the contest has been part of EIMA since 1986, with the Technical Evolution distinction awarded to products that introduce original improvements to solutions already manufactured or patented.
www.caseih.com
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