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TerraStar-X Delivers Near-Instant RTK-Level Accuracy

Ag Leader announces GPS 7500 receivers will now support TerraStar-X, providing centimeter-level accuracy to customers across the Midwestern United States, with additional coverage areas coming soon. TerraStar-X delivers RTK From the Sky™ performance, and convergence in under one minute with two centimeter accuracy.

TerraStar-X revolutionizes the precision agriculture industry, by delivering rapid, accurate and reliable positioning” said Bill Cran, Ag Leader Product Specialist. “TerraStar-X allows growers to get the accuracy and speed of an RTK network for planting and other high-precision field operations, while reducing equipment requirements and increasing productivity.” 

Ag Leader currently offers a full line of correction signals that include WAAS/EGNOS, TerraStar-L™, TerraStar-C Pro™, TerraStar-X and RTK in order to serve a large range of producers and crops. TerraStar-X will available to purchase in 12-month subscriptions later this year.

About Ag Leader

Ag Leader Technology, Inc. is a recognized technology innovator of precision agriculture hardware and software. Located in Ames, Iowa, USA, the company manufactures and markets industry-leading precision farming technology designed to help growers make smart, profitable business decisions. Founded in 1992, the company has achieved consistent growth and expansion by providing value-based products that help growers and agricultural professionals achieve and maintain a successful, profitable operation. For more information visit www.agleader.com.

Novatel® and RTK From the Sky™ are trademarks of Novatel Inc. TerraStar™ and TerraStar-X™ are trademarks of TerraStar GNSS Limited. All trademarks or service marks used herein are property of their respective owners.

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During the busy harvest season, the last thing you want to see is a combine sitting with a full grain tank because of mistakes made by the grain cart operator.

Unfortunately, all too often, farmers encounter:

• Difficulty finding qualified grain cart operators
• Problems communicating with the grain cart operator
• Grain cart operator not understanding which part of the field to be in or how to get there
• Harvest delays due to inefficient grain cart operation
• And the most obvious—grain unloaded onto the ground instead of into the grain cart

Introducing CartACE™

As farmers know, operating the grain cart is a role that requires experience and the ability to perform under pressure. It’s becoming more and more difficult to find qualified operators to fill critical roles in farming operations, including grain cart driving.

To help alleviate a shortage in experienced grain cart operators, Ag Leader has announced a limited beta release of CartACE, a new grain cart connectivity feature.

 

“This new feature provides assistance to the grain cart operator to make unloading-on-the-go an easier and less fatiguing process,” says Ag Leader Product Manager Joe Holoubek.

CartACE, which is powered by Ag Leader’s industry-leading InCommand display, simplifies the grain cart operator’s job.

“It takes a certain level of expertise to operate a grain cart,” says Holoubek. “We’re approaching this problem in a practical and economical way that we believe many of our customers could easily adopt and benefit from.”

“We aim to turn what might be an average vehicle driver into a skilled grain cart operator by providing the right tools and assistance during high stress and high error-prone harvest tasks,” Holoubek says.

How CartACE Works

CartACE begins with InCommand displays installed in the combine and grain cart tractor.

“This new feature simplifies the grain cart operator’s job by sharing a live map of the combine’s progress and location on the InCommand display,” says Holoubek.

“This helps the grain cart operator to literally see when and where the combine needs to unload and which part of the field has already been harvested,” he continues.

Then the InCommand display in the grain cart automatically generates a guidance line alongside the combine.

“The operator simply presses a button to engage autosteer,” says Holoubek. “While the operator is still responsible for operating the vehicle safely, they can now focus their attention on unloading the grain.”

The CartACE Connection

Holoubek explains that CartACE is an affordable solution to the grain cart operation challenge farmers face, using technology that’s already in the cab.

“Connecting the operation and automating some critical tasks enables operators and machines to work better together, along with providing a huge boost in productivity,” he says.

“We believe this is an important step toward the future of farming that most operations can take advantage of today—without a large investment or venturing too far outside their comfort zones,” Holoubek says.

Ag Leader will issue a limited beta release of CartACE in the fall of 2019.

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Are you headed to this year’s Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois? Be sure to swing by Ag Leader’s booth!

Ag Leader will be showcasing our whole product line. Come by booth number 518, southeast quadrant on 5th Progress Street to see the latest in precision ag technology – InCommand®, AgFiniti®, SureDrive®, SureForce®, CartAce™ and more. 

 

We look forward to seeing you.

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Think about this: as a farmer, you only get one shot at harvesting your crop each year. Now think about how many things have changed in the past 10 or 20 years: bigger, faster and more accurate equipment, new seed technologies, better herbicide, insecticide and fertilizer options, improved water management, precision technologies … the list goes on.

The first time you tried some of these out, how did you measure the results? How did you know they worked? How did you know they were worth the investment?

Simple: harvest data. I’ll admit, I have a special affinity for yield monitoring, not just because that’s how Ag Leader got its start, but also because harvest data is the trigger for all decisions for the next growing season. Without accurate harvest data, it’s impossible to make informed decisions about the impact of seed types, fertilizer needs, drainage issues and other variables that affect your yield.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yield monitoring has come a long way since it was introduced just over 20 years ago. Today, the amount of data that can be gathered with a yield monitor probably wouldn’t even fit on your desktop computer of 20 years ago. But success isn’t about how much data you can collect and store.

Success happens when you do something as a result of the data you’ve collected. Data has become a buzzword in our industry over the past couple years. Many companies have been jumping on the bandwagon to help you “manage” your data. At Ag Leader, our goal has been to empower our customers with tools that help them collect, analyze and use data to make better decisions for their operation. That’s what we’ve done with our SMS™ software. And that’s exactly what we’re doing with AgFiniti® so you can easily share data with your trusted advisors, consultants and partners and take your yield maps with you as you leave the cab. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to check out this new technology. You’ll be impressed with the time it will save you and the power it gives you to manage your operation.

 

Finally, as we roll out the combines and roll into harvest season, I want to thank you for putting your trust in Ag Leader. We appreciate your business and continue to work hard to develop tools that will help you improve your operation.

Have a bountiful harvest!

Best Regards,
Al Myers

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At Ag Leader, we understand our employees are the heart of our company, and the personalities our customers and dealers interact with every day. Take some time to meet our team. These are the people who make our company great, and help bring cutting-edge precision technology to the marketplace.

Tell us the basics

Hi, my name is Sam Worley and I’ve been at Ag Leader for a little over 8 years now. My work currently blurs the lines of the Marketing and Sales departments but I have also worked in Tech Support, Shipping and as the Warehouse Receiver. These past roles held aid me daily with in-depth product knowledge and an understanding of how things operate with our product fulfillment chain.

My hometown is Champaign, Illinois, though I also lived in Longwood, Florida and Decorah, Iowa before starting college in Tempe, Arizona. I finished my degree at Iowa State and have called Ames, Iowa home ever since.

Tell us about your work

My main responsibilities are creating blog content, web product page content, developing dealer, customer communications and fielding sales calls, emails from dealers and customers. I also attend some farm shows and dealer events as needed and work on a committee for internal events. If you’ve ever toured Ag Leader, you may have had me as your tour guide.

As you can gather, I serve the department with product knowledge, communication skills and personal relationships with employees, customers and dealers alike. I like to think of myself as an Ag Leader ambassador with my role! Being hospitable, knowledgeable and in a position to help is the part I like best about my job.

Ag Leader is an organization to be proud to be a part of. We strive to do right by the customer and the industry by being honest, humble and accessible. We are a company of good character, integrity and I enjoy being a part of that.

Tell us about yourself

Outside of my time at Ag Leader, I enjoy spending time with friends and my wife.
I also enjoy cycling, camping and working on various household and motorized projects. I love pretty much anything with wheels and they all take work to maintain! Fixing your own issues and solving problems can be very gratifying.

My favorite food is probably pasta, though anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a picky eater!
As far as travel, I’m a bit of a homebody. I enjoy traveling within the Midwest, it has enough variety and excitement for me plus most of my family is here. Camping in Decorah, Iowa or Cedar Falls, Iowa are some of my most enjoyable destinations. We recently took a vacation to Norway and it was my first foray into international travel. 

The last book(s) I read were the Rabbit Run series (four titles, published 1960-2001) by John Updike. I would recommend these books because John is a very good writer – descriptive and concise.

Stay tuned for more Meet the Team employee features! Be sure to check out our other blog content here.

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Ag Leader will issue a limited beta release of CartACE™ for InCommand® displays.

AMES, Iowa, August 7, 2019 – Today, Ag Leader, the leader in year-round precision farming technology widely known for the first commercially successful yield monitor, announced a limited beta 

release of a new grain cart connectivity feature, CartACE. Powered by Ag Leader’s InCommand display, CartACE gives the grain cart operator assistance while unloading on-the-go.

“We know that the grain cart seat cannot be filled by just anyone, and it is getting harder to find experienced operators to fill critical roles in farming operations. It takes a certain level of expertise to fill this role, which we’re approaching in a practical and economical way that we believe many of our customers could easily adopt and benefit from,” explained Joe Holoubek, Ag Leader Product Manager. “We aim to turn what might be an average vehicle driver into a skilled grain cart operator through providing the right tools and assistance during high stress and high error prone harvest tasks.”

CartACE simplifies the grain cart operator’s job by sharing a live map of the combine’s progress and location through InCommand displays, helping the operator know when and where the combine needs to unload and which part of the field to drive on. The InCommand display in the grain cart automatically generates a guidance line alongside the combine and the operator simply presses a button to engage autosteer. While the operator is still responsible for safe operation of the vehicle, they can now focus their attention on unloading on-the-go. 

“Connecting the operation and automating some critical tasks, enables operators and machines to work better together and provides a huge productivity and confidence boost. We can do it using current technology already in the cab,” added Holoubek. “We believe this is a needed step toward the future of farming that most operations can take advantage of today without a huge investment or stepping too far outside their comfort zone.”

About Ag Leader
Ag Leader Technology, Inc. is a recognized technology innovator of precision agriculture hardware and software. Located in Ames, Iowa, USA, the company manufactures and markets industry-leading precision farming technology designed to help growers make smart, profitable business decisions. Founded in 1992, the company has achieved consistent growth and expansion by providing value-based products that help growers and agricultural professionals achieve and maintain a successful, profitable operation. For more information visit http://www.agleader.com

.

Media Contact:
Anna Sheets
Marketing Communications Manager
(515)735-7000

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This year, scout your fields with your operation’s information at your fingertips. View Multi-Year Analysis maps through AgFiniti® and get the big-picture view of your operation to advance farm management decision making.

Multi-Year Analysis maps average multiple years of grain harvest data to help you see yield trends and easily identify management zones in your field. These zones are helpful for making in-season and post-season management decisions. While Multi-Year Analysis maps can be used to create prescriptions for the field based on nutrient needs, they can be used for even more. These maps serve as a valuable reference layer along with other maps (e.g. hybrid or variety maps) while walking fields, helping to identify specific areas to make improvements during the current or following year.  

AgFiniti makes it easy to see these maps by automatically generating them as new grain harvest data is uploaded from Ag Leader InCommand® displays, legacy displays (Ag Leader® Integra or Versa™), or SMS™ Software.

 

How To Access the Free Trial

1. Verify you have an active AgFiniti Essentials license. If you don’t, please reach out to one of our Ag Leader dealers.
2. Purchase a Prescriptions and Multi-Year Analysis service for a field in AgFiniti and enable the option to try one field for free (up to 120 ac). Your Multi-Year Analysis maps will be automatically generated!
3. Go to the field with our AgFiniti apps for Android or iOS!

Don’t wait till harvest to make use of Multi-Year Analysis maps. Try it now through a free trial today!

Talk with an Ag Leader dealer or see the AgFiniti page to learn more!

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CS Arable Services, owned and operated by Chris Shepherd, started back in 1996 and was the result of a previous business partner retiring, allowing Chris to buy out the contracting part of that business. At that time there were 11 full-time staff plus a fitter.

Fast forward to today and the business is a lot leaner, more efficient. They currently the have three full-time sprayer operators: Richard, Nick and Daryl plus Chris, as well as two office staff (Christine and Cathy) who take care of the day to day admin tasks.

 

CS Arable run four Bateman RB35 36m self-propelled sprayers plus a Knight self-propelled sprayer that takes care of the specialist task of suspension fertiliser application. The company covers between 35-42,000ha per year, depending on what is in season, as well as the weather. 2018 was a tough year due to weather which meant the two spring applications of N were amalgamated into one, thus reducing the application hectares quite significantly. A similar trend happened with crop protection application as well.

Prior to using Ag Leader, a competitive precision ag system was used for many years. It was about 11-12 years ago when they made the switch to an InSight™ display and a DirectCommand® system fitted to a MultiDrive machine they had for applying suspension fertiliser. There was also an Edge™ display fitted to a Bateman but this was soon changed for an InSight. 

Once the Ag Leader® Integra display was launched in 2009, Chris upgraded his machines to this display over a period of time and also had a couple of OnTrac2™ assisted steering systems fitted. 2011 saw their first integrated steering system fitted to a Knight sprayer in the form of a ParaDyme®. Today, Chris now runs SteerCommand™ on all but one of the machines with RTK and InCommand® 1200 displays. The NTRIP RTK signal is provided by UK Ag Leader distributor Precise Solutions via their F1 RTK country-wide NTRIP network. This also allows him to use AgFinti® on all his displays, though only currently uses it for background maps but is interested in using DisplayCast® to transfer data easily between machines.

 

When I asked Chris why he chose Ag Leader in the first place, his reasons were very clear:

• User interface very intuitive and easy to use.
• Summary reports allowed him to see easily what had been done.
• Same display across all vehicles allows flexibility to swap drivers between machines depending on the job.
• Compared to the competative systems he had at the time, the InSight display had far more memory and allowed him to store field boundaries, AB lines etc… all on the display rather than external storage devices.
• No-one else could offer what Ag Leader could for controlling a self-propelled sprayer.

 

 

 

 

Even today he sees no reason to swap to another system, though one his questions was “what will Santa Claus be bringing this Christmas for 2020?” Like many others, he does have his own list of features that he feels would further enhance the Ag Leader system.

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At Ag Leader, we understand our employees are the heart of our company, and the personalities our customers and dealers interact with every day. Take some time to meet our team. These are the people who make our company great, and help bring cutting-edge precision technology to the marketplace.

Hi, my name is Kara Nelson! I work in the Technical Support department here at Ag Leader. I’ve been here a little over a year now and my hometown is West Des Moines, Iowa.

 

My primary responsibility is providing technical support for our public customers and dealers. My role includes answering phone calls and emails and creating documentation on our Knowledgebase.

One of my favorite parts about my job is being able to help and teach people how to use our SMS Software.

My favorite part about Ag Leader is working with a great group of people!

Outside of work, I enjoy horseback riding, playing tennis, and kayaking. Chick-fil-a is definitely my favorite place to eat! My favorite places to travel are the Badlands of North and South Dakota and in the winter, Arizona. I enjoy hiking and four wheeling in the hills! The last book I read was Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly, I would recommend this book if you enjoy history!

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Does GPS lingo leave you scratching your head? 

We’ll help you gain some clarity, as we explain NTRIP/CORS networks. 

NTRIP, CORS and VRS are different things. However, the terms are often used synonymously in our industry.

NTRIP (Network Transport of RTCM via Internet Protocol) and CORS (Continuously Operating Reference Station) are forms of RTK differential correction that are done using a cellular modem and base station network. This means that instead of using the traditional base station and radio to send correction data to a rover, data is sent using the internet to a cellular modem with a data plan. VRS (Virtual Reference Station) is simply a method of RTK correction that will be explained in detail later.

In order to use this type of correction you must have a cellular modem, a receiver capable of RTK correction and a cellular data plan. You are also required to register with your local NTRIP provider. This will include creating a username and password as well as obtaining a port and IP address for the cell modem to access the network. 

NTRIP networks are growing in size and capability. Some networks are operated by the state, free of charge, while others are privately operated and can require a subscription fee. Networks are also adding support for the newest GPS constellations, including Galileo (Europe’s network) and will continue to add support as other constellations come online.
 

NTRIP Architecture

The NTRIP system is made up of three primary software components: caster, server base and client rover. 

The NTRIP caster is an HTTP Internet service, acting as a line of communication which carries GRSS connection data between NTRIP server and NTRIP clients. 

The NTRIP server base transfers GNSS data corrections from the NTRIP server to the NTRIP caster.

The NTRIP client rover makes real-time corrections based off-of the GNSS data, or RTK positioning received through the internet using single reference stations which are also known as RTK networks. Additionally, it sends request messages to the caster in order to receive data.

NTRIP Message Formats and Streams

There are four formats supported by NTRIP/CORS: CMR, CMR+, RTCM 2.x and RTCM 3.x. There are five supported NTRIP streams:  Near, Max, iMax, Single and VRS.

CMR, CMR+ and RTCM 2.x are only capable of using GPS, whereas RTCM 3.x is capable of using GPS and GLONASS. 

Near uses the closest base station in network for its solution, this is based on a GPS position sent from the rover to the network, which chooses the closest base station to the rover.  Max and iMax use a network of base stations to create a solution.  Max uses a solution generated by the rover whereas iMax uses a solution generated by the server.  When using Max all data is sent to the rover and the correction is generated at that location.

When using iMax, the receiver periodically sends out its location to the network where the solution is generated and sent back to the rover. Single base is a solution allowed on some networks that lets you choose a specific base station as opposed to having the network choose a base or network of base stations for you. VRS or Virtual Reference Solution requires the rover to send a latitude and longitude position to the VRS network; the network then creates a virtual base close to the rover that is used for correction. There is a network of reference stations that receive information from the GPS network, they communicate through a server and finally a single base sends position information to the rover where the information is corrected.
 

Why NTRIP?

One of the benefits to using NTRIP is the capability of achieving sub-inch RTK accuracies without having to purchase and manage a base station yourself. RTK accuracy allows for a level of repeatability that cannot be achieved through most other types of correction. There are many states that have networks.

The map below shows Minnesota’s network. The base stations are spread generally even to allow for coverage in most areas.

 

Ag Leader’s Seamless Connection

Now that your head is swirling with information, read on to find out about our handy tools that provide seamless connectivity!

Ag Leader offers an internet connected InCommand® display which supports easy connection to NTRIP networks. This is an option that does not require an unlock or any additional cost for/from the display. In the picture below, see InCommand’s user-friendly interface that allows you to easily select your stream and other NTRIP settings.

 

Internet connection to the display can come via the BR1-Mini cellular modem/hotspot that we offer. It powers on with the display and connects to the cellular network and provide a WiFi hotspot for the display to connect to. It’s a seamless connection that doesn’t require user interaction after installation. The display also allows connection to any device. Typically, we see iPad’s or cellular hotspots (MiFi devices), used to bring your own internet connection.

The BR1-mini data plans are activated through Data Activation Center. The BR1-mini (or other cellular hotspots) can be added to existing cellular plans from Verizon, US Cellular or AT&T. 

Our current GPS 7500 connects to the display and receives NTRIP data over a serial port. The 7500 then uses that information to calculate an RTK position. 

 

Feel like an expert yet? 

To learn more about Ag Leader’s precision agriculture offerings, visit our product pages or talk to a local Ag Leader dealer.