Major changes in farming practices always take time, and precision agriculture is no exception. Zero till first caught producers’ attention in the late 1970s, but it took more than 20 years to become mainstream. Despite the obvious benefits of satellite guidance and autosteer, it took a decade for that technology to become mainstream. Farmers began […] Read more
Ron Lyseng
Stories by Ron Lyseng
Make your spray droplets glow in the dark
Farmers who like the way a disco strobe does that freeze-frame trick on their dance partner will love the way it stops action on their spray pattern. Moving those strobe lights from the disco to the spray boom might give them an entirely new perspective on what they’re doing in the field at night. Many […] Read more
Brush your cares away, go spray
A Wisconsin inventor hopes farmers will be interested in spending $4,000 to equip their spray booms with a new device he says can increase target coverage by 92 percent. Kurt Kamin has merged his experience as a sprayer operator with his pilot experience to develop a brush that hangs in front of each nozzle to […] Read more
Spray scientist says think outside the tip
Application specialist Tom Wolf says we’ve hit the limit with nozzles when it comes to reducing spray drift. It’s now time to think about wind shear. “Wind shear has two powerful impacts: it makes the spray finer and it sucks the little droplets out of the spray cloud,” says the Saskatoon spraying systems researcher. “Those […] Read more
The right tire for the right soil and load
We know different combinations of tires and inflation cause different degrees of soil compaction, but until now there was no way to put a number on it. The Scandinavian soil science project called Poseidon has given The Western Producer its readers access to an interactive calculator called Terranimo, which lets producers figure out that elusive […] Read more
When does big become too big?
Boom builders and boom buyers agree that bigger is better, especially in Texas where everything is super-sized. However, Texan Ron Boyd argues that there may be times when one size smaller is better than one size larger. Three months ago, the boom manufacturer and retailer introduced a return on investment calculator that accounts for 20 […] Read more
Shape-shifting tire mimics rubber track
Reinforced sidewall construction achieves 167 percent better lateral stability so it can flatten under heavy loads
Whether farmers prefer round rubber pneumatic tires or flat solid rubber tracks depends largely on their soil and precipitation. The industry offers a comprehensive lineup of tires and tracks to keep everyone happy. After all, there is no in between or compromise. Or is there? Well, maybe there is. Mitas, the little known tire company […] Read moreMitas tires use ‘mini-track’
Farmers who’ve switched from tires to tracks all seem to miss one thing: air. Tracks jolt man and machine, while tires let farmers ride on a cushion of air. “Air supports the tractor,” says Firestone field engineer Wayne Birkenholz. “A tire is nothing more than a rubber container holding air.” Ideally, farmers could buy implements […] Read more
Tires allow for larger load, same footprint
Firestone’s new Advanced Deflection Design agricultural tires are engineered to fit the increased flexion (IF) and very high flexion (VF) categories for agricultural tires. Field studies at the Firestone Research Farm in Ohio show that AD2 tires yield a four percent savings in fuel and a five percent savings in time when compared to equivalent […] Read more
CT scan tech used to check soil health
The penetrometer has been the primary instrument for measuring soil compaction since its introduction in 1905. More recently, Scandinavian soil scientists have used hospital CT scans for a more accurate measurement to clearly depict and quantify soil structures. One of the pioneers in this area is Dorthe Wildenschild, a researcher in Oregon State University’s chemical, […] Read more
