John Deere was recently presented with six 2021 AE50 Awards for outstanding innovations that improve production agriculture. Each year the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) recognize the 50 most innovative product-engineering designs in the food and agriculture industry with its AE50 Awards, as chosen by international engineering experts. Winning products are recognized for ingenuity in product development, and for saving farmers time, costs and labor while improving safety.
This year John Deere received 2021 AE50 Awards for the following innovations:
- ExactRate Liquid Fertilizer System
- Harvest Monitor with SmartClean
- X9 Combines
- CH950 Sugar Cane Harvester
- HDR Rigid Cutterbar Drapers
- CF Folding Corn Heads
One of the award-winning innovations John Deere introduced last February was ExactRate, a liquid-fertilizer-application system on John Deere planters that farmers can use for row-by-row section control. This system helps reduce fertilizer costs at time of planting by automatically shutting off application in areas of overlap or non-application.
Also receiving a 2021 AE50 Award was the John Deere Harvest Monitor with SmartClean System — an industry-first cleaning performance and documentation system for mechanical sugar cane harvesters. SmartClean enhances operator decision making and helps deliver a consistent, customer-defined product to the mill. Coupled with integrated machine sensors, SmartClean minimizes cane losses and manages residue ejection, and leaf trash sent to the mill by automatically adjusting primary cleaning fan speed settings. Agronomic information also can be documented and recorded to provide live feedback to the farmer about the machine via the John Deere JDLink dashboard and the John Deere Operations Center.
Last summer, John Deere introduced two models of X Series combines, the X9 1000 and X9 1100, which received a 2021 AE50 Award. The X9 1100 can harvest up to 30 acres of tough, high-yielding wheat per hour, and harvest up to 7,200 bushels per hour in high-yielding corn. As conditions change, the combine automatically adjusts itself to keep running at peak levels.
John Deere also received 2021 AE50 Awards for its HDR Rigid Cutterbar Drapers and CF Folding Corn Heads that were introduced last summer. The HDR enables small grains, oilseed or soybean farmers to maximize their combine’s acres-per-hour capacity across various crops, changing conditions and uneven or rolling terrain while capturing more grain.
Another AE50 award was presented to John Deere for its CH950 Sugar Cane Harvester, the industry’s first two-row harvester introduced last March in Brazil. The CH950 doubles productivity and decreases crop losses by 60%. And, since it’s a two-row harvester, it enables the owner to reduce in-field transport equipment, the number of machine operators, and overall harvesting costs.
