John Deere Adds Manure Constituent Sensing to HarvestLab 3000

If you’re a producer or commercial service provider who applies liquid manure to fields, the John Deere HarvestLab 3000 infrared sensor that evaluates nutrient characteristics in forage and feed can now help you more accurately analyze, adjust, and document gallons applied per acre, on-the-go, to meet your nutrient targets. Analyzing liquid manure 4,000 times per second, the HarvestLab 3000 with Manure Constituent Sensing provides laboratory-quality values for important nutrient constituents to help a producer manage his fertilizer program.

“The system provides accurate, real-time values for total nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, and dry matter content of the manure as it’s applied to the field,” explains John Mishler, precision ag tactical marketing manager for John Deere. “This enables operators to manually or automatically adjust the volume based on the nutrient values to meet specific nutrient targets or goals for their fields, and possibly save on commercial fertilizers.”

He adds that nutrient levels of the manure can vary tremendously within a load and between loads compared with traditional sampling methods used to determine fertilizer values.

“HarvestLab analyzes the entire load in real time so applicators know exactly how much material is applied per acre and what the nutrient values are,” Mishler says. “It takes out all the guesswork, resulting in better decisions and more uniform nutrient applications and, ultimately, better crop response.”

The technology can be used with a variety of tanker or dragline equipment to apply liquid swine, beef, and dairy cattle manure. During application, the nutrient values are shown on the John Deere display in the tractor cab. With Tractor Implement Automation, the tractor/applicator speed is automatically adjusted to maintain the desired application rates or nutrient levels. Using JDLink Connect, application data can be sent wirelessly to the John Deere Operations Center for mapping and documentation, or shared with trusted advisers.

“HarvestLab helps producers control fertilizer costs by automatically applying valuable manure at the right rate in the right place, based on their specific crop needs and fertilizer goals,” Mishler adds. “The three-in-one HarvestLab 3000 is a highly-portable, highly-accurate sensor that can be used to analyze forages at harvest and at the time of feeding, and now with manure applications for fertilizer. It may be the most versatile tool producers can use to analyze and manage their forage, feed, and manure resources.”

HarvestLab 3000 with Manure Constituent Sensing along with activation will be available in August 2019. If you have an existing HarvestLab 3000 unit, parts will need to be ordered for installing the sensors on your manure application equipment, as well activating the manure sensing software.

To learn more, contact your local John Deere dealer or visit JohnDeere.com.