INTEGRATING HARVESTER GPS TRACKING DATA WITH A SPATIAL HARVEST RECORDING SYSTEM

TRIALS to integrate harvester tracking with a mill-based spatial harvest recording system were undertaken during the 2002 and 2003 seasons in the NSW mills. In these trials, the position of the harvester and the status of various sensors were logged by a data logger, and uploaded to a central location by telemetry daily. These data were used to interpret harvested areas and harvester performance (speed, cutting time). These data were then passed onto the cane officers responsible for maintaining the records of harvested areas for each mill using specialised software developed for this purpose. The objectives of these trials were to develop the technology and procedures to: (a) efficiently collect and enhance knowledge of areas cut and the harvest status of paddocks; (b) use these data to provide performance reports as a basis for differential harvest charges and comparing performance against benchmarks; and (c) improve the accuracy of productivity reporting to growers. The results showed the system has potential to meet these objectives and will be used as the basis for harvest recording in the 2004 season for the NSW mills. There were a number of technical problems encountered during the season in implementing the system, and there have been on-going improvements based on experience. The harvester tracking highlighted where consignment errors were generated, and the options for minimising the impact of these sources of error are discussed. The harvester performance reports are to be reviewed as a basis for differential pricing for harvesting, and this is seen as potentially having a flow-on to facilitate the improvement of farm paddock layouts.