By DAN GRANT FarmWeek
The use of driverless ag equipment would have been seemed like a farfetched fantasy at one time, but these days it’s reality — and it’s gaining ground.
And some of that technology was on display to farmers from around the world at the Commodity Classic in Orlando, Florida, in March as equipment manufacturers set their sights on improved ag efficiencies.
“We are committed to moving forward as an industry,” said Matt Olson, precision ag manager for John Deere. “When you look at the future, we continue to evolve at an increasingly fast pace because of technology.”
John Deere released its first autonomous tractor for tillage operations last year — 8R tractors with a TruSet-enabled chisel plow, GPS guidance and
advanced technologies.
The unit features six pairs of stereo cameras, which enable 360-degree obstacle detection and calculation of distance.
And it’s just the first in what Deere envisions as an entire lineup of autonomous equipment.
“We are committed by 2030 to have a fully autonomous production system for row crops, from planting and spraying to harvest and tillage,” Olson said — and that could radically change how farmers manage their operations.
“We’ve gone from managing the whole farm, to fields and more recently to zones,” Olson said. “When you look at the technology we have now, we’re able to manage at the plant level through sensors, machine learning and through automation.”
Deere’s new See and Spray Ultimate is one example. The new technology can reduce non-residual herbicide use by more than two-thirds by using cam-
John DeereJohn Deere’s new See and Spray Ultimate system uses 36 cameras on a 120-foot sprayer boom to scan fields so that it can apply herbicide only to weeds it detects. The new technology, which can reduce non-residual herbicide use by more than two-thirds by its target spraying, is just one example of a growing trend toward high-tech gear on the farm.
eras to identify and target-spray weeds.
Its ExactApply nozzle control technology also helps reduce potential drift.
Deere also unveiled new ExactRate technology this year to precisely mon-
itor and control applications of liquid fertilizer during planting.
How do farmers prepare for automated technology?
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banking since 1934…We understand the importance of experience, growth, local decisions and longevity in
As companies shift their focus to autonomous equipment, the day when farmers aren’t in the driver’s seat doesn’t seem that far down the road
Olson recommends they get comfortable with the JD Operations Center, gain expertise in how to work with a connected machine and make sure their farms have high-fidelity boundaries.
Meanwhile, Case IH advanced its development of autonomous technology when it unveiled its TriDent 5550 sprayer with Raven Autonomy at last year’s Farm Progress Show.
Farmers can run the applicator with Raven Autonomy from any mobile device.
“That’s considered supervised autonomy,” Kendal Quandahl, Case IH precision technology marketing manager from Waterloo, told FarmWeek at Commodity Classic. “You can have multiple machines in one field controlled by one operator.”
Case IH introduced the autonomous sprayer through market research with farmers, who identified field applications as one of their top labor pain points, Quandahl noted.
“One of the spotlights for us is the path to autonomy Case IH is working towards,” she said. “One of the big -
gest things we have to help producers understand is it’s not just a driverless machine, but rather a series of automated equipment.”
Case IH also recognized past achievements in ag equipment design at Commodity Classic as it continued its celebration of the 100-year anniversary of Farmall, an original brand of International Harvester.
“We’re very excited about the past and innovations on farms from 1923 to today,” said Joe Miller, Case IH tractor market segment lead. “We’re kicking off the next 100 years of Farmall.”
Case IH recently launched new Farmall 90 and 120 model tractors, geared toward specialty markets.
The company is also giving away a Farmall 75C tractor as part of the 100-year celebration. Visit the website, Farmall100.com, for more information about that or go to CaseIH. com to learn about all the latest innovations.
This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.
WASHINGTON — Free propane safety guidelines are now available through the Propane Education and Research Council.
Each guide — which can be downloaded by clicking the “Ag Safety Guides” link at propane. com/safety/— provides important information about code and training requirements, specific hazards and special safety considerations.
“Propane-powered equipment offers farmers many unique advantages over other energy sources or equipment,” said Michael Newland, director of agriculture business development at PERC.
Propane is a real powerhouse on the farm, providing power to irrigation engines, grain dryers, generators, forklifts, light- and medium-duty vehicles, mowers, and more — flame-based weed control equipment, for example.
But before farmers get fired up about the fuel, they should familiarize themselves with safety guidelines.
“It’s imperative that propane users are properly educated on safe usage and practices to power their farms safely and efficiently,” Newland said. “We’ve created these one-page guides to make this important safety education as simple and accessible as possible.”
—EricaQuinlan|AgriNewsPublications
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — How would you like to play a part in making local weather forecasts more accurate and contribute to studies of precipitation and climate? Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it sounds. All you have to do is walk out into your yard and read between the lines.
Trent Ford, Illinois’ state climatologist, is getting the word out about the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network, and he hopes people hear what he has to say. CoCoRaHS is a nationwide non-profit network of volunteers who measure precipitation — be it rain or snow — using gauges staked out in their yards. The program has about 860 volunteers in Illinois, but more are needed, and in all parts of the state too, both urban and rural.
CoCoRaHS volunteers check rain gauges daily, measure any precipitation and report the results on an app or computer. They not only play a role in
weather watching, but they can also learn how weather affects our lives.
Rainfall observers help fill the gaps where National Weather Service stations are absent. When NWS stations are far apart, their reports don’t account for local variability in rainfall.
In Champaign County, for instance, Ford noted that last year in two locations just eight miles apart, one area received 10 more inches of rain than the other.
Volunteers also track when there’s no precipitation, which can also be important.
Ford examines indicators for drought every week so he can make recommendations to the U.S. Drought Monitor, which informs federal and state decisions on drought recovery assistance.
“It’s really important for me to have data from observers to know where it didn’t rain,” he said. “Without the observations, we might assume that the whole county got rainfall.”
While weather is one of those topics we all seem to talk about it, it’s espe-
cially important to agriculture.
“When thinking in agricultural terms,” For said, “10 inches of rain could be the difference between a good crop or one that yields less than expected.”
Information from the reports is also used by a number of other people and organizations, including the National Weather Service, and has helped improve river forecasts and drought assessment. The daily precipitation measurements that volunteers provide are important for post-event analysis to understand storms and their impacts in the state. The observations contribute to the understanding of where there may be effects from urban or flash flooding.
Daily and weekly precipitation data are also used to improve predictions for the following week’s forecast, Ford said.
“One thing we all share is our concern over the accuracy of weather forecasts,” he said. “The CoCoRaHS network makes a huge difference in helping us to understand that day-to-day weather variability.”
Want to help? Go to cocorahs.org/ Application.aspx to fill out an application form
The coordinator for the Northwest region — which includes Bureau, Carroll, and Whiteside counties — is Tim Gross, who can be reached at 563-386-3976 or tim.gross@noaa.gov
The coordinators for the North region, which includes Lee and Ogle counties, are Scott Baker and Scott Lincoln, who can be reached at 815-834-0673 or scott.baker@noaa.gov and scott. lincoln@noaa.gov.
The Illinois state coordinator, Steve Hilberg, can be reached at 217-3776034 or hberg@illinois.edu. Go to cocorahs.org/state.aspx?state=il to see an Illinois’ precipitation map.
Crop production in Ukraine is expected to take a big hit this year, despite farmers’ best efforts, as the Russian invasion enters its second year.
Myloka Solskyi, Ukraine minister of agrarian policy and food, discussed his country’s situation via a video chat during USDA’s 99th Annual Ag Outlook Forum.
“We’re losing people,” he said during an impassioned speech at the February forum. “Cultivated area has decreased about 25%. A considerable amount of our land is polluted with explosives.”
Ukrainian farmers face not only the physical challenges of war to plant their crops, but also worsening supply chain issues and tightening margins.
“We face serious energy supply problems. Russia is shelling critical supply infrastructure (including crop storage and loading facilities),” Solskyi said. “Some farmers have become unprofitable. Our ag sector is losing its potential.”
Gordie Siebring, an American farming in Ukraine, will mark 30 years in ag there next month. He previously operated a dairy in Iowa.
He also foresees major issues for Ukrainian farmers this season as the war drags on.
“As we look to spring, many farmers say they can’t afford to put on fertilizer this year,” Siebring told the RFD Radio Network. “I just met with my Pioneer salesman, and he projects corn plantings will be down at least half of what they would have been.”
Joe Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute and former USDA chief economist, estimates wheat plantings in Ukraine are down 35-40%. He looks for similar cuts in corn production this season.
“I think this year in a sense will be more critical to its impact on Ukraine and global markets,” Glauber said during the Ag Outlook Forum. “We’ve seen this hit three crops now — the 2021 crop that wasn’t able to be exported, the 2022 crop had all sorts of
problems and the 2023 crop is being impacted by very low returns.”
The war and other crop production issues, including drought in the western U.S. and Argentina, trimmed world crop stocks to the lowest level since 2007/08 for wheat and 2012/13 for corn.
“We can’t really afford drought in any other major producing region of the world this year, or we’ll be back to where we were (with short supplies and higher prices),” Glauber said.
The U.S. continues to support Ukraine, and farmers there still plan to produce and export what they can this year. Most exports from Ukraine are being shipped via land instead of ports that are blocked by Russian forces, which adds more than $100 per ton to transportation costs.
“The world recognizes Ukraine is important to food security,” Solskyi said. “We’re doing everything possible to ensure the world doesn’t suffer from famine.”
Russia officially invaded Ukraine over a year ago, on Feb. 24, 2022, and Siebring still struggles to believe what he’s seen since then.
“The first thing that comes to mind is the true shock the invasion actually occurred,” Siebring said. “The war has been so bloody and brutal, in the 21st century I just really didn’t see something like that happening.”
Siebring appreciates the support from his fellow Americans. But he doesn’t foresee an end to the conflict any time soon.
“We were very encouraged to see (President) Biden make the trip here,” he said. “But I don’t see Russia giving up.”
Ukraine was the world’s sixth-largest producer of corn and seventh-largest producer of wheat prior to the war. The top five producers of corn worldwide are the U.S. (31%), China (25%), Brazil (11%), the European Union (5%) and Argentina (5%), according to Greg Johnson, grain originator at Total Grain Marketing in Champaign.
This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.
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The glue that holds farms together can also be used to bind books. Just ask Andrea LeFevre, who runs a family farm in Lee County with her husband, Andrew. Andrea penned her first children’s book, “A Day on the Farm with Mama: Harvest Edition,” to celebrate women on the farm, and help people see all that they do. “We are largely unseen and unheard and with all of the things that we do,” she said. “I hope it resonates with people. It is hard work.”
Submitted
By JEANNINE OTTO | Shaw Media AgriNews
ASHTON, Ill. — Andrea LeFevre wants the world to know that farm women are more than a footnote.
“Maybe it’s not visible to the world that we do all these things, but it’s what makes the day go by, all these little routine things. Whatever needs to be done, we do it. That’s just farm women. We get it done,” she said.
One of the things she got done recently was her first children’s book, “A Day on the Farm with Mama: Harvest Edition,” which was published in the fall of 2022. Her inspiration for the book was another children’s book that was a favorite of her sons, Bryar, 3, and Boone, 1.
LEFEVRE cont’d to page 21
A Lee County farm Mama wants to shine a spotlight on all the “farmhers” out there — and she’s getting it done
LEFEVRE cont’d from page 20
“My oldest son picks this one book over and over again and it goes like ‘farm dad takes farm kids out to feed the cows, slop the pigs and collect the eggs. Then they go to school. They come home from school and they ride horses and their ATV.’ On the very last page of the book, it goes something like ‘and thanks, Mom, for frying us chicken for supper,” she said.
LeFevre said each time she read the book, she found herself thinking of all of the tasks that make up her own day, as a farm wife and stay-at-home mom — or as she calls them on her website, farmwifeatheart.com — “farmHERS.”
“Each time I read it, it was like a dagger straight to the heart. As someone who grew up on a farm, and now being a farm wife, I was like: We do so much more,” she said.
LeFevre graduated from Amboy High School in 2010 and attended beauty school in Champaign, then opened her own salon in her hometown of Sublette.
LeFevre said that before she wrote her book, she didn’t have publishing ambitions, but the lack of recognition of farm women like herself, plus being in contact with other farm wives and farm women on social media,
inspired her.
“I follow other farm women and farm wives on social media and I kept seeing these posts: What is holding you back from doing the thing you want to
do, that you should do, that you are being called to do? It really resonated with me and I thought absolutely nothing is holding me back,” she said.
While her sons napped, she
searched online for information on writing a children’s book and publishing. She also made notes for the book, based on her own experiences and those of the farm wives and farm women she knows.
“I do everything a stay-at-home mom would do. I make sure the house is kept up, do the dishes, the laundry, pay the bills, take care of the kids,” she said.
“I really try to instill an interest in farming in my boys, as well. I will load them up and take them to the farm for tractor rides.
“If there’s a breakdown and they need me to go, I run for parts. I bring lunch out to the field if needed and all kinds of little things here and there.”
LeFevre and husband, Andrew, married in 2018. They farm their own ground and also farm with Andrew’s parents, Mark and Stacy LeFevre, near Ashton, raising corn, soybeans and seed corn.
The Sublette farm that she grew up on was sold after the death of her grandfather, Elroy Lauer. Her father, Tom, now lives near Andrea and helps out on the LeFevre farm and also with Andrea’s sister and her husband, who also farm in the area.
LEFEVRE cont’d from page 21
Andrea helped her dad and grandpa out on the farm, cleaning out tractors and doing different jobs around the farm.
She also was inspired by her mom, Kim, whom she recalls pitching in wherever and whenever she was needed on the farm.
“My mom drove a tractor during harvest. She hauled ammonia tanks and hauled water. She took seed out to the planter. My mother-in-law is the same way. Whatever needed to be done, they did it,” LeFevre said.
The book was illustrated by a former coworker, Heidi Holloway.
“Before I became a stay-at-home mom, I worked at Woodhaven Association near Sublette. I would walk by Heidi’s desk and see her drawing all these pictures, so I asked her if she would illustrate the book and she said yes,” LeFevre said.
She said she was eagerly awaiting the first copies of her published books on the day the box arrived from the publisher.
“I opened the box, all of the excitement and tension building and I saw the title, ‘The Hungry AF Vegan.’ It was a vegan cookbook. They had
awesome.
shipped me somebody else’s books. I thought, you have got to be kidding me — you mixed up a book about a farm with a vegan cookbook?” she said.
LeFevre was able to get in touch with the author of the cookbook on Instagram and get the shipping mix-up corrected.
“When I finally got my books, it was like a weight lifted off of me. It was just a beautiful moment: Little old me, look what I’ve done, look what I created,” she said.
She kept the book a secret until she could surprise her friends and family when it was published.
At a recent reading of the book at Pankhurst Memorial Library in Amboy, Andrew’s grandmother came out to support her.
“She came to the reading and she was so proud of me. Her exact words
were, ‘I can’t believe none of us have done this before,’” LeFevre said.
Now that he has one book under her belt, she’s ready for another “Day.”
She’s already planning her next book, a planting edition that should come out this spring that will talk about all the planting season-related tasks that farm women perform on the farm and in the home.
She said she hopes to inspire others and to remind people of all ages of the vital role that farm wives and farm women play in the family and on the farm.
“We are largely unseen and unheard and with all of the things that we do, I hope it resonates with people. It is hard work,” she said.
“We are the glue that holds the family together. We sacrifice so much and I want people to see that we are awesome.
“We get stuff done and we can do anything we put our minds, too. We can do some really cool stuff.”
The book is available through LeFevre’s website, farmwifeatheart.com.
Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815-410-2258, or jotto@shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Otto.
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We are the glue that holds the family together. We sacrifice so much and I want people to see that we are
Andrea LeFevre