For smart farming technologies to have an on-farm impact, machine connectivity must be robust.
“What farmers need most are tools or systems that will help them avoid one of their staunchest enemies: downtime,” says Alex Ngu, product marketing, Trimble. “If there’s been rain for two weeks, the skies clear and you have one day to take off the crop, downtime due to shoddy signals can cut deeply.
Current estimates show roughly 20% to 30% of rural areas in the U.S. do not have sufficient cellular network coverage. Equipment manufacturers are partnering with satellite connectivity providers to ensure you don’t have to stop and wait for a strong connection. Or worse yet, forge ahead without capturing the data needed.
Enhanced Options
Case IH announced a collaboration with international satellite provider Intelsat in spring 2024. Intelsat offers the world’s largest satellite network alongside terrestrial (cellular) to increase connectivity. Its best known for providing in-flight Wi-Fi to many well-known commercial airline brands. Kendal Quandahl, precision segment lead, says Case IH plans to expand the beta testing for its new satellite terminals with farmers in South America as well as other regions. The service is currently being tested in North America, but is not yet available.
For Quandahl, who still farms with her family, it’s all about offering options so farmers can choose the service that works best for them.
“If you think about it, there are areas where Verizon is really strong and AT&T isn’t, and then you might go somewhere else where Verizon doesn’t have good coverage,” Quandahl says. “Previously, in our equipment we have had farmers choose one cell provider. Now we’ve enhanced our hardware, so it can talk to multiple providers. Very soon, we’ll offer satellite as another option.”
Quandahl says the connectivity module will come in a small box that’s installed into a tractor or combine cab by mounting a receiver and plugging in a cable or two. When paired alongside a receiver that can pull in cellular signals, the pair can offer peace of mind to a farmer due to the redundancy of having both signals available at the same time.
Quandahl is seeing a lot of farmer interest in satellite connectivity, and she has heard from several Case IH dealers that are also excited about being able to use the signal to remote into machines and help growers troubleshoot their issues.
Coverage Boost
John Deere made big waves in 2024 when the manufacturer announced its partnership with Elon Musk’s low earth orbit satellite service Starlink. The two companies joined forces to develop satellite receivers that farmers can install on their John Deere machines to keep them connected. The service,
called JDLink Boost, is available through John Deere dealers, though pricing has not been publicly released as of press time.
Mike Kool, senior product manager for connected fleets, shares the beta test phase for JDLink Boost provided some really good feedback from test farmers in the U.S. and Brazil.
“Generally, they told us how well it works switching between satellite and cellular, and that’s really our goal,” he says. “It’s giving customers the ability to augment satellite where they cannot connect to cell, and vice versa.”
With John Deere taking another step forward in the autonomy market with the release of its Next Generation Perception System for autonomous tillage on the 8R and 9R series tractors in January, Kool says it’s absolutely critical to maintain high connectivity when a machine is in autonomous mode.
“Our goal with this is to drive value, and connectivity is just so foundational to our technology stack,” Kool says. “Now we can do that in a multitude of flavors and give our customers the ability to get their data back into their operations however they see fit.
“That data is key for our customers because it generates a scorecard at the end of the year — how did I perform, and what tweaks do I need to make for next year to be more productive?”
While generally viewed as rivals in the heavy ag equipment space, there’s one thing Case IH and John Deere can both find common ground around when it comes to connectivity.
“I’d say the benefit of adopting satellite through an OEM is we’ve focused on integrating it directly into our equipment,” Quandahl says. “We don’t have to interrupt the operator’s day-to-day to install or change connectivity providers, and they appreciate that.”
Did You Know?
Kansas State University associate professor Terry Griffin analyzed the financial impact to farmers from the May 10, 2024, GPS outage, which was caused by solar weather and sun flares in outer space. Many farmers around the Midwest were right in the middle of planting during the outage.
Griffin found that (assuming a minimum of 200 bu. per acre yield and $4.50 crop price) Illinois farmers who were delayed by the outage and forced to plant corn later in the month experienced losses of up to $90 per acre.
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