Let's start with the facts.
Even in the best combines on the market, a certain amount of grain loss is unavoidable. But every grain out the back is money on the ground and not in your pocket. Leveraging modern, easy-to-use technology, grain loss can be dramatically reduced, enhancing farm profitability by putting more quality grain in the bin and reducing operational costs along the way.
The Bushel Plus SmartPan System™ is a simple, safe, and accurate drop pan tool widely used around the world by farmers and harvesters to measure and manage grain loss. In four fast steps, you’ll have access to more valuable information to help you make informed decisions to optimize your combine, calibrate your combine loss sensors and, harness the power of combine automation systems.
The SmartPan System: Four Quick and Easy Steps to Reduce Grain Waste
If you don’t check accurately, you don’t truly know what you’re losing. In other words, you can’t manage what you don’t measure.
Imagine taking a stack of hundred-dollar bills and throwing a thousand dollars out of your combine window every hour.
Now, you may be saying to yourself, “I wouldn’t!”
But are you? Maybe not literally…
The reality is, we have seen it. Grain loss of a few hundred dollars and over a thousand dollars per hour do exist and it doesn’t even need to be your own fault.
The SmartPan System’s four simple steps can help you identify such situations and save you thousands of dollars in grain that may have otherwise been thrown out the back of the combine as waste.
Fast Results, Fast Return on your Investment
The following before and after is a real on-farm example of the positive impact checking can have.
In this scenario, the driver was informed the combine was set, but quickly after a check, realized it wasn’t properly calibrated and was throwing out 10.7 bu/ac out the back! After some quick adjustments, the combine was running with .8 bu/ac losses.
What does that look like in terms of savings with the SmartPan System? With a few quick data inputs, our industry-verified app does all the calculations for you.
Let’s walk you through the calculation process in our app for this example.
In this example, the operator saved over $7,000 by dropping a pan and dialing in the combine. The insight of knowing what he was throwing paid for the SmartPan System twice over in one field.
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The app is designed to be intuitive and user friendly. Save your results, combine settings, notes and more and share them with other drivers, so you can reference them in similar conditions as a starting point.
Contact us for specific local pricing information.
Post-Harvest Payoff
A customer who purchased the Bushel Plus SmartPan System before the 2022 harvest season noticed first-hand the significant difference measuring harvest loss and calibrating the combine can have on re-growth. Both Exhibit A & B above are the same crop/field. The farmer noticed their combine wasn’t set properly after harvesting the field captured in Exhibit A. They dropped a Bushel Plus SmartPan and measured 6.5 bu/ac loss. After making some combine adjustments and verifying their changes with our system, they were able to bring their losses down to 1.2 bu/ac. They harrowed the field and after they received a couple inches of rain, the difference in crop re-growth was astounding. Exhibit B, which demonstrates 1.2 bu/ac loss had significantly less regrowth than the area harvested before they dropped a pan and dialed in the combine. Which makes sense, because less grain loss means less seeds on the ground for re-growth right after harvest or worse in the next years crops as volunteer crop.
This eye-opening example not only highlights the grain savings, but also the potential operational cost savings during other seasons that are a result of throwing less grain back on the field, such as a reduction in volunteers and use of herbicides.
Real Farmers, Real Success Stories
Hear more from happy farmers using the SmartPan System – a game changer for their operation!
You can re-seed and re-spray, but you can only harvest once! Make the most of it and know with certainty what you’re throwing so you can manage it.
Ready to change the game on your farm? Reach out to our team.
