‘Super combine’ attracts interest at Ag Expo
RESEARCHERS USE COMBINE TO GATHER FIELD DATA
A “super-combine” which has doubled the efficiencies of research technicians in the field is on display at Lethbridge Ag Expo this week.
Researchers from Agriculture and AgriFood Canada are on hand to show off their souped-up research plot combine, an innovative tool used by the Centre’s agronomists to gather data in their test fields.
The machine has a two-row corn header for grain corn trials and a twometre straight-cut header for other test crops. It comes with user-friendly data monitoring systems that gather information on test weight, yield, grain moisture content and grain protein.
Steven Simmill, research technician for AAFC, said the plot combine is used for large-scale research plots. The combine allows for a number of different useful measurements, including simultaneous readings for moisture, test weight and plot weight.
“It increases our efficiencies,” he said. “We can subsample. As we’re going through a plot, it will shoot subsamples continuously. And we can bag them. That’s where we do our further analysis inside, in the winter.”
Simmill said the organization handles between 15,000 and 20,000 plots per year that need to be combined in a timely fashion. “When you have a machine like this, it gives you excellent data results,” he said.
“We can plug a USB stick into its computer, and when we plug it back into our (own) computers, we can make data sets really easily. For efficiencies on how many plots we do, this makes things go way faster. We’ve probably increased our efficiencies by double.”
He noted the new combine can handle a 12-by-50-foot plot every two minutes.
“It’s very fast and efficient,” he said. “We can do a lot of work very quick.”
Simmill said when people approach the table, they are interested in the combine itself but also about the kind of research being done.
“It’s nice to talk to people about this kind of work,” he said.
“It’s not out there a lot. It’s nice to be able to showcase some of the stuff we are doing. A lot of people don’t really know what we do in research, and what equipment we do, that kind of stuff. It’s nice to display some equipment we use to help farming in the long-term.”