First up, is the much anticipated SmartPath guidance pattern. This is a new "drive and guide" pattern, that finally allows us a good option for guidance in odd shaped fields, contours, and terraced fields. I have plenty of all of them, so I spent some time this spring helping to test this awesome new pattern. I have planted for four years with autosteer now, and I can finally say with a great amount of confidence that I could plant everything without needing markers on the planter. Here is the official language from Ag Leader about their new pattern.
“No setup is required; drive the first pass and SmartPath will guide you from there. SmartPath combines straight AB guidance lines with curves, allowing users to simply drive their guidance pattern,” says Product Manager, Matt Leinen. “This is particularly beneficial in odd-shaped or terraced fields as well as fields without established guidance lines. Users will genuinely appreciate the ease-of-use this feature adds to Ag Leader guidance and steering products.”
I couldn't agree more! Nice job on this one. For those of you that have used a pattern similar to this with other systems, you probably understand the frustration of having the system incorrectly select the pass you wish to be on. Ag Leader is handling this very well, and only in extremely rare or difficult situations did I even have to press a button to get the right pass selected.
This new pattern is available in both the Edge and Integra, by simply updating to the latest firmware.
The next big feature announced in my opinion is the Integra now has the ability to load variety maps for harvest. This means that you can take as planted data from multiple monitors, or multiple types of monitors, and read it into SMS, then output an as planted map that can be loaded into one or several Integra displays.
This will really help out those with a mixed bag of precision ag equipment, as well as provide a way to mesh data from two or more planters into one display for harvest.
The last item wasn't really an announcement today, but rather a personal favorite of mine. The Integra display got a facelift in how switch mapping is handled. All of it is handled by a new graphically intuitive Switch Assignment screen. BIG time saver to those who set up these systems! It also finally becomes easy to understand what is assigned and where.
This is probably my favorite feature enhancement that made it in the Integra!
