John Deere customers recently gained the option of having Raven products installed and approved by Deere dealers, possibly loosening the exclusivity and proprietary nature of Deere’s precision agriculture hardware.
Andrew Abraham of John Deere’s regional office in Regina said the new agreement gives farmers one-stop shopping.
“They no longer need to find a Raven dealer to install NH3 and other fertilizer equipment on Deere implements,” he said.
“They can now buy an entry level anhydrous delivery system at their John Deere dealer. Our equipment has been compatible with Raven for the past few years, so that part is nothing new.
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“What is new is that Raven equipment will be available at our dealers. It’s now integrated into our system so a producer has full parts and service backup at the John Deere dealer.”
The green door is now open to five Raven products, with the Sidekick perhaps one of the most significant innovations.
The Raven Sidekick is a versatile direct-injection system that carries concentrated product in a separate tank on either a sprayer or fertilizer applicator. In an anhydrous ammonia system, Sidekick can inject a nitrogen stabilizer or other liquid fertilizer products while putting down anhydrous.
On a sprayer, the Sidekick tank can carry the concentrated product while the main tank is dedicated to water, reducing the need for tank cleaning and mixing. This lets an operator switch from Roundup Ready crops to conventional crops without stopping to clean the tank.
With the product carried only in the Sidekick tank, the problem of what to do with leftover tank mix is eliminated because the product never enters the main water tank.
Sidekick also lets a producer carry optional chemicals for spot applications in certain parts of the field. For example, micronutrients can be applied during seeding only to the field zones where they are needed. While spraying fungicides or top dressing nitrogen, the operator can add specific crop protection products to selected zones, either by a switch in the cab or by prescription map.
The Raven AccuFlow uses a super-cooler to reduce the temperature of anhydrous so it remains in a liquid state at the flow meter and can be accurately measured by a rate controller.
The Raven AutoBoom PowerGlide Plus and UltraGlide now used by Deere provides an automatic boom-height control and gives dealers “a universally compatible solution for customers who require automatic boom height control.”
The Raven SmartBoom is a GPS-guided automatic section-control system that nearly eliminates skips and overlaps. Deere said this option is for producers who want affordable and simple automatic section control for liquid fertilizer and anhydrous application.
Raven’s SCS 450 is an entry-level automatic rate control console for liquid and anhydrous. The SCS 660M is an automatic rate control console for dry fertilizer and liquid manure applications.
The SCS 450 and SCS 660M are aimed at producers who prefer not to invest in a premium-level display. Both consoles are compatible with a Green Star light bar and StarFire 300 GPS-position receiver.
“This low-cost combination allows customers to utilize manual vehicle guidance with automatic rate control for affordable precision ag,” Deere said.
For more information, visit www.ravenindustries.com and www.JohnDeere.com.
