LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jim Schmidt might not have been the most popular person in the room when he announced recently that third-party farm machinery testing has returned to North America.
“Producers are barraged by a lot information about machinery and technology, with very little unbiased information,” said Schmidt of Mechanized Design.
“We know the Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory provides unbiased information about tractors, but what about all of the other machinery that farmers have to invest in?”
Schmidt made the announcement Feb. 9 at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, which was attended by agricultural engineers, many from machinery manufacturers.
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“(Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute) reports are 20 years old. We all looked up to PAMI. That was respected by everyone. A loss to agriculture, but they don’t do that anymore and there is a need,” he said.
“When you pay $400,000 for a combine or a sprayer, and all you can go on is company information, testimonials and surfing the internet, that’s not good enough for farmers or agriculture.”
Kansas State University is starting the machinery testing program at its campus in Manhattan, Kan.
“Third party verification is common in ag. In dairy, (there are) feed audits, animal treatment, energy and carbon footprint per unit of milk… Vegetables are audited,” said Joe Harner, the agricultural engineering department chair at Kansas State.
“Farm equipment needs this.”
Harner said his university won’t do all the work.
“Some (universities) have more (experience) in forages.… We will need partners.”
However, he said the new Center for Off Road Equipment is not being embraced by all in the industry.
“It does us no good to think about lawsuits. We will go through creating protocols before we start. We will all collaborate on the testing protocols. Manufacturers will be in the room.”
A few engineers at the meeting commented about a lawsuit that pitted a Saskatchewan farm equipment manufacturer against PAMI after a 2007 report that found no significant advantage for one of a pair of fertilizer placement strategies.
PAMI was set up to do the same task as CORE, but the Saskatchewan and Manitoba governments decided that evaluating farm machinery was too costly and cut support.
The organization continues to perform testing as well as farm machinery design and development, but it now charges manufacturers a service consulting fee and doesn’t share results with producers.
CORE will charge manufacturers for the testing and make the results public, similar to the model employed by the University of Nebraska’s Tractor Test Facility.
In Europe, farmer organization DLG provides testing of farm machinery.
Ed Brokesh, an extension and engineering research specialist with Kansas State, said his university is not out to create winners and losers in this process.
“CORE will give farmers confidence in their investments and will ensure that producers’ are getting the best technology they can get,” he said.
“We won’t be looking at the equipment through red, green or yellow glasses. Ours will be purple. And that matters.”
He said manufacturers are testing machinery head to head with that of competitors “and spending a lot to do it.”
“(However), farmers need their own (information),” he said.
“Agriculture needs it.”
He said the testing will have value for machinery manufacturers because it causes producers to invest with confidence in new products.
“Producers come to us with trust,” he said.
“We have agronomists and economists and engineers at the university. We can draw on a diverse group to ensure that evaluations are honest and accurate.”
Horner said the world’s food supply will benefit from the adoption of newer and better technology that is measured and compared to a standard.
“We have to double our (food) production by 2050. Sorry, but I don’t think (crop) genetics are going to get us all the way there,” he said.
“It will take the right machinery.”
A major overhaul of the university’s agricultural engineering department is underway to accommodate the new lab, with strategic faculty hiring in machinery systems and precision agriculture technologies.
Kansas State is developing its new manufacturer partnerships as well those with other universities.
Dan Flippo of the university said one of the promised benefits to industry are better-trained engineering graduates.
Each undergrad will now have experienced three internships, having worked with the test facility, and likely will have been working with machinery suppliers during testing.
“The prospects are now already snapped up (by a farm machinery manufacturer) in freshman year,” he said.
“This improves things for manufacturers. It helps them get the right people.”
Derrick Mullins, vice-president of operations with Mechanized Design, is working with CORE to establish testing protocols.
The first is complete.
“We have a valid lab test that can be impartial and accurately lab test seed meters,” he said.
The test will also evaluate equipment based on a farmer’s initial investment, the speed, accuracy of operation ,reliability and potential resale value, which allows for an overall “per acre” rating.
Brokesh said the lab will start small, testing just key components of machines.
“To take a combine out and report on the whole machine is years away yet,” he said.
“Features such as turn compensation on sprayers and seeding equipment will be some first steps.… We don’t want to get ahead of the manufacturers when it comes to releasing results, but we will need to publish whatever we find.”
Getting ahead of companies’ will be a sticking point for companies dealing with CORE. Schmidt said the group knows that intellectual property is a big part of new equipment.
“We are learning, we are talking to Roger Hoy (at Nebraska State’s Tractor Test Facility) about what they do,” he said.
“And we will work with the manufacturers.”
An engineer from a major farm equipment manufacturer said during the meeting that there is always a tendency to make it into a competition whenever two things are compared.
“There can be a hell of a lot more excitement in discrediting a product than saying it was pretty good at what it was expected to do or it improved things a couple of points,” said the engineer, who preferred not to be identified.
Harner said the lab facility is in place and his team is developing a five-year cash flow and operating plan. It will begin consulting with manufacturers about IP protection and the other aspects of partnership that will be required to begin analyzing machinery. Prices charged manufactures will be standard industry consulting rates.
michael.raine@producer.com
