New Holland North America released ForageCam for its lineup of FR forage harvesters. It enables the ability to capture real-time kernel processing scores (KPS). This allows producers and forage harvester operators to monitor live crop flow and quality and optimize performance to hit their target KPS.
“For dairy and beef producers, feed quality is the most important indicator of forage harvester performance,” says Patrick Weitzel, forage harvester marketing manager for New Holland North America. “With ForageCam, producers and custom operators are getting a real-time KPS and can assess right away if the quality is high enough the moment their forage is running through the harvester. In the past, we had to guess from the cab what the score was or send samples to the lab to determine the KPS. Now, we instantly know the forage score and quality.”
ForageCam is a spout-mounted camera with AI-powered vision that continuously analyzes the chopped corn crop flow, monitoring the percentage of fully processed kernels and comparing it against the target processing levels that have been predetermined by the operator. This data is used to continuously and automatically adjust the kernel processor to achieve the desired forage quality, eliminate under processing, boost productivity, minimize fuel consumption and reduce machine wear. Together, these features can contribute to a lower total cost of harvesting and increased forage quality.
KPS monitoring and mapping data captured by the ForageCam can be viewed live in the cab on the IntelliView IV Plus display or later via detailed reports and map layers in FieldOps.
The ForageCam system allows producers and operators to set their desired KPS based on livestock type. This ensures every corn kernel is properly cracked to maximize nutrient absorption and improve overall animal nutrition. The result of optimizing processing performance with this technology: better milk production per head and meat quality.
