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Around The Vineyard
Giersbach from Gearmore said, “In general, most Precision Farming and Telematics capability to ele-
new vineyard implements are basic improvements vate the vineyard operator’s efficiency.
of existing products, such as new vine trimmers
that will perform in difficult trellis systems, like “GPS integration allows Row Tracing System
California Sprawl. Also, with current large reduc- technology and the operator to see harvested, or
tions of in-row spraying, more companies are unharvested, rows on the onboard Intelliview IV
developing new and improved in-row cultivators.” display or to see what rows have been sprayed or
pruned for full integration,” Cordero said. “This is
Christensen said that John Deere’s JDLink technol- complemented by our grape weighing system on
ogy is becoming more commonplace in vineyards to our Twin-Hopper models, providing static harvest
enhance connectivity and remote diagnostic capa- data.”
bility. JDLink provides remote access for monitoring
critical tractor systems and functions. Christensen Cordero said GPS integration allows New Holland
said this continuous communication, alongside cus- to offer a precision farming solution called
tom alerts, can prevent downtime by helping cus- SmartSteer. This automatic guidance system utilizes
tomers avoid equipment failures. a 3D camera to self-steer the harvester by following
the vine canopy.
“Producers can give their dealer remote access
to the machine to troubleshoot potential prob- “It also self-aligns the picking head pendulum
lems, provide fast repairs or schedule routine angle to correct the unit steering direction,”
maintenance and help keep their machines up and Cordero said. “This helps in reducing operator
running,” he said. “For operations with a fleet of stress and increasing harvesting safety and efficien-
tractors, JDLink can be used to check machine loca- cy.”
tion, view location history, see reports on historical
performance and utilize and compare machine per- Walker of Kubota has seen GPS/GIS technology
formance across the fleet.” becoming more widely available, leading to an
increase of adoption in the industry as prices come
Meanwhile, New Holland Agriculture has down.
enhanced its harvesters’ performance with feed-
back from its customers and through new offer- “By giving the manager and team more infor-
ings and mechanization partners. The company mation about soil moisture and plant health, vine
has done this by growing and implementing its health can be maximized, while allowing costly
treatments to be made at
the optimal time to maximize
effectiveness and reduce
cost,” Walker said. “There
have been several interesting
developments in automation
technology in the past years,
and it will be exciting to see
where it takes the industry in
the future.”
Choosing Large
Equipment
for Your Vineyard
With recent innovations and
technologies introduced into
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