In the end it comes down to treating each plant individually. Farmers can look at specific parts of the fields with various type maps, including soil type, yield and biomass maps, and use that technology to maximize their planting and to have smarter fertilizer application. “That’s our automated guidance system that delivers repeatable automatic tractor guidance within two centimeters, year over year. “We’ve been working for the last 20 years on our AutoTrac technology,” said Showalter. Precision agricultural technology has been a long-term project for Deere. The tracks glide over rough terrain, so the operator doesn’t feel the bumps.” Because of operator comfort, farmers can traverse their fields faster, especially over rough fields. “And speed of operation can be improved as well. “Basic fuel efficiency is 20% better than with tires,” explained Schowalter. higher-speed operation, and advanced technology to bring farming into the 21st century. It's not your grandpa's Farmall - Deere's modern cab design stresses operator comfort to allow. So this is generating tremendous interest among customers who’ve previously used wheeled tractors.” “Those aren’t so easy in Europe, where we have very narrow roads. “Dual tires and triples are do-able in the U.S.,” said Schowalter. The tracked alternative is especially attractive in Europe. That’s a romanticized era of farming, but things are much better today.” It’s much better for the environment than the smaller tractors that farmers used in the 1960s and 1970s were. “Most people think these large machines destroy the soil,” added Ralf Lenge, Manager, Public Relations. That means less rainwater runoff, so less soil loss, reduced loss of the nutrients carried in the rainwater, and more water available for crops to bridge dry periods with water also being the nutrient carrier.” “Less soil compaction means better water absorption.
With the four-track 8RX, that’s reduced to 20%.” The result is a reduction of ground compaction and in less area of the field, as shown by studies Deere did in conjunction with the University of Bern in Switzerland and Michelin, the well-known automotive tire maker that also produces agricultural tires and tracks. That’s just as much as my own feet! And with normal 900 section single wheel tires, about 25% of the field is rolled over. “But its footprint is over 4.6 square meters, so it exerts less than 0.4 kilogram per square centimeter pressure on the soil.
“The 8RX weighs about 20 tons,” Schowalter said. With the strike now settled, the European design award recognition is icing on the cake, burnishing Deere’s sustainability credentials.īut the sustainability payoff can be huge. After a 2020 that saw Deere’s results affected by both the pandemic and a corporate reorganization, the company is on track for a banner 2021, with its projected net income of nearly $6 billion on track to beat the 2013 previous earnings record by 69%. Headquartered in Moline, Illinois, agriculture and construction equipment behemoth Deere & Company employs over 69,000 people in 70 countries. With a heavy focus these days on regenerative and sustainable farming practices, that’s a pretty big deal.
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That’s why the John Deere 8 Series tractor, particularly the four-track model 8RX, was an Industry Award finalist in the recent DesignEuropa awards, an every-other-year celebration of excellence in design and design management organized by the European Union Intellectual Property Office. You might be wondering what, other than it looking super-cool, is the point of having tracks rather than wheels on a farm tractor?Ī whole lot, it turns out, including significant sustainability improvements and efficiency gains.