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ANALYSIS OF TRAFFIC PATTERNS AND YIELD MONITOR DATA FOR FIELD EFFICIENCY DETERMINATION
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2002
Year
Precision AgricultureEnvironmental MonitoringEngineeringField EfficiencyLand UseContour PatternsAgricultural EconomicsYield PredictionSocial SciencesProductivitySystems EngineeringYield OptimizationAgricultural MachineryTransportation EngineeringGeographyCrop YieldTraffic EngineeringField CropTraffic MonitoringAgricultural EngineeringPerformance AnalysisCivil EngineeringNatural Resource ManagementContour Pattern
Field efficiency is an important criterion for determining the expected field capacity and, indirectly, for makingimportant machinery management decisions. The data gathered with a yield monitor during harvest and a DGPS monitorduring planting were used to provide timemotion studies of equipment and operator productivity. This study used spatial datagathered by a farmer to determine field performance of a combine and a planter. Five fields were used to compare results fromsoybean and corn production. Fields that are relatively flat with straight rows were contrasted with contoured fields withslopes up to 3 to 5%. Field efficiency, travel speeds, and unproductive time lapses were compared. When contour patternswere compared with the straight rows, field efficiency dropped on the contours by 10 and 20% for planting and harvesting,respectively. Average travel speeds were slower for contour patterns than straight rows by more than 1.6 km/h (1 mph).Although the histograms of the time lapses were very similar for contour and straight patterns, almost twice the number oftime lapses was found with the contour pattern.