Resource-saving, cost-effective, high-quality and higher yield operations – the demands on farming are continually climbing. To meet them, agricultural enterprises have been relying more and more on precision farming.

The AGCO Corporation has developed the Fuse® Technologies strategy for this. It provides agricultural enterprises with seamless integration and connection of their entire fleet. This includes the Variotronic operating interface, which includes the applications VarioGuide, VarioDoc Pro, SectionControl, Variotronic^TI automatic and ISOBUS. Modern agricultural enterprises like the Westfarm GbR in Geilenkirchen, Rhineland, demonstrate how they are successfully implementing these technologies.

Can you already tell if these extras pay off? Wilhelm Jaeger calculates: “We know that without VarioGuide we have overlapping of up to ten percent. With a working width of six metres that amounts to 50 to 60 cm. Or, on a total area of 500 hectares about 50 hectares per implement that is worked twice in every season! Ten percent savings through the use of VarioGuide are already about 50,000 euros saved every year.” Jaeger makes the same calculation for the input costs. For his farm, they are about 600 to 800 euro/ha. Through the use of Variotronic, he also saves ten percent here. That is 60 to 80 euros per hectare and year. The use of SectionControl also pays off. SectionControl prevents double treatment when working with a sprayer, fertiliser spreader and precision seeder. It reduces the quantity of operating inputs by two to five percent. “That alone convinces us that our investment in the Variotronic will pay off very quickly,” he concludes.

Not included in these calculations are the socalled “soft” factors, such as less stress on the operator or the environmentally friendly working process: fewer passes ultimately mean lower diesel consumption. In addition fertiliser and pesticides are only applied in the quantities that are required. Another advantage that Wilhelm Jaeger, who farms relatively small-structured areas, names: during spring cultivation work, he used to spend a lot of time searching for the boundaries of his fields. I always had to look for the boundary stones. “Now we can save the boundaries of the field in our computer. We use the RTK system for correction. Thanks to the correction signal, we can work very precisely. Once a track is created, it is always in the same place. We can use them over many years. That makes work much easier compared to before. Instead of having to first determine the boundaries, we can now just drive off and work.”

Most areas lie immediately at the operating site. They have sprinkler irrigation. But the soil on the field where sugar beets will be seeded today is clayey with a high share of humus and puts its demands on the farmer. “We want the greatest possible accuracy. Only then can we raise the potential of the soil,” says Wilhelm Jaeger. Precision and modern technology – in regions with relatively small parcels, this can only be realised through cooperatives and with it, high utilisation. Connected with this is naturally also a high efficiency of the tractor and the operators. What is also important for Wilhelm Jaeger is: that because he has been connected with farming since he was a child, he knows from his own experience, how important it is to handle soil carefully. “We have been cultivating the same fields here for a very long time. That is why sustainability is not some kind of newfangled thing for us, but a tradition that has been alive for more than 200 years. And every generation has new technical possibilities to handle the soil carefully.”

On the terminal, the farm manager shows us why he appreciates the easy, logical operation of the Fendt technology. “Let’s assume that we have just finished seeding this field. Then I go to the menu item ‘Job’, where the task is saved. Here I can see that we have drilled 4.07 ha – of a total of 8.28 ha that are in the job. Now we have to enter whether we will stop working or just pause. Before saving, I check the data again, then the job is sent.” The terminal now reports: “VarioDoc: Data transfer completed successfully.” Jaeger knows: all information about his activities on this field can now be called up from the office. There he can import the data into the field database – that’s it. How does Wilhelm Jaeger use the data logged on the tractor in his office? “I log in to my field database over the internet. The master data is stored there, the work journal. With the ‘On-board computer’ button, I open a menu with the sub-item ‘Read data carrier’. I can call up the data that was saved in the field there with VarioDoc. All the jobs are displayed, sorted by date: operator, size of the area, working time, machine and quantity of seeds. That is simply perfect!“, exclaims the farmer enthusiastically.