Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Today, we are prepping the Peterbilt (” The Pete”, as we call it) for harvest time work.  It did not require much in the way of maintenance, just an oil change, and some lubrication to the chassis.  It also received a good cleaning and some polish.

John and Brandon shine up The Pete

Other preliminary work is being done, too.  The Greenstar systems in the JD 9330 tractor, the JD 4730 sprayer, and in the JD S680 combine have been updated.  This occurs twice a year, when John Deere releases new software updates.  Each machine took a little over a half-hour to install the update.

Here is the GS 2630 screen starting up. This device contains the programming to operate the Greenstar systems such as Swath Control, Harvest Documentation, SprayStar, SeedStar Air Drill controls, and AutoTrac (satellite steering guidance) among others

We download the update files from the JD Stellar Support website, and then place the information on a USB stick.  That gets inserted in the port on the 2630 screen… and the update installs automatically.

This update came with two distinct stages: First, this one for the 2630 unit itself…

…and then the screen also performed an update on the roof-mounted StarFire 3000 satellite receiver.

Now, all the Greenstar systems are fully up-to-date and ready for the fall harvest season. \

Yesterday, we spent the morning in a training session for the Climate Corp’s FieldView system.  This is the platform with which we are hoping to blend together the C-IH AFS information and the JD Greenstar information that is gathered during field operations.

The 3 presenters helped us understand the workings of the FieldView Cab system, especially as it pertains to operating it in a combine.

This meeting was held at the Gasthof in Montgomery, Indiana… we were served a delicious lunch following the program!

There remains a little bit of roadside bush hog work I’d like to do, but the rainy weather has pushed that into at least next week.  Speaking of the rainy weather, we received a tick over 7″ of rain (178mm) from Saturday through Tuesday.  Wow!  White River is still predicted to crest today at 17.5′ at Edwardsport, 2.5′ above flood stage.  With that amount of rain we are surprised it’s not higher.  Yes, there will be some damage to our nearby fields, but it won’t be a total loss.   A 20-foot or more river crest would have been a wipe-out down there.