Combines GTA Suite and Fieldstar

[Magnum_Man]

You hit the nail on he head as far as the Fieldstar Monitor and software goes. It is a joke for all the same reasons you listed above. What updates and repairs are you laying out that kind of moneyIJ

 

[kip]

Most of this years money went towards a chaff spreader ($3500). I run a 36' draper head. Dealer had said I didn't a chaff spreader with a Gleaner. The Seperator clutch had a broken wire and concave not set correctly to CDF rotor cost three drive belts, whole new seperator clutch, and two service calls. Spent about $3000 converting the Macdon draper from JD to Gleaner. This years update are: longer unload auger, hump kit, flat feed chain floor, screen kit under cleaning fan, connect chaff spreader hydrulics to maintain full speed, assorted small things. Have since switched dealers. They really know their stuff. Wish I had talked to them more before I bought the R75. A lot of these updates would have been included in the machine.

 

[Magnum_Man]

Do you have the old Macdon JD partsIJ If they fit an 873 adapter I might be interested in them.

 

[Kurt]

Other than Fieldstar, how did the combine performIJ As far as fieldstar, what screen do you haveIJ I have the touch screen with the GTA 300 software. I did have some trouble downloading my maps from the card, but after a couple of hours I learned that if I just down loaded one field at a time it would work alright. Since then I have received some new software that just came out. It does seem to work better. The software is version 1.2.333 Part n72570173 For the GTA Just my 2 cents Kurt

 

[Jeff]

We are having same issues with software. I lost 700 acres of soybean maps last fall. It seems like if you don't upload your card every day the data gets scrambled. I sent off the data from one of these scrambled cards to the tech guys, they were helpfull on the phone but that was the last I herd from them. I am sorry to say, but if a guy wants yield mapping with an agco machine you might as well put Agleader in it. Keep on them, if we all scream load enough someone will here us.

 

[lightening]

kip are you sure you are having all of these problemsIJ I was always told by Agco that I was the only person that had all kinds of problems.I hope you were able to buy your silver seeder at huge discount so your loss will not be so huge when you give up and go back to green.I traded my r65 for a 9560 with auto steer and mapping. You talk about night and day difference it is a pleasure to drive a combine that funtions properly. Best of luck.

 

[T__langan]

We have Fieldstar (well, did have it in the R52 we traded for an R62 - dealer never got around to installing a new Fieldstar in the 62 yet),but did not use mapping - only used it as a yield monitor. However, I was surfing AGCO's website a few weeks ago and looked around at the Fieldstar II - looks to me like the new ones use SD cards for data transfer, correctIJ If so, why not pick up several of these cards - they are not expensive by any means compared to losing data. Keep a few with you in the combine and slip a new one in when changing fields. At the end of each harvest day, take them home and upload the data to your computer. This way, you eliminate the risk of losing data when switching from one field to the next. You can even buy "wallets" that hold these SD cards for only about $10. That being said, AGCO needs to get it's act together if it wants to play in this high tech area. First of all, they need to know how their own products work (or doesn't work) and then they need to get dealers trained well on using this stuff. The dealers themselves also need to make some effort in making sure someone on their staff gets trained well on technology. I tend to think a lot of dealers just send one of their mechanics to school for things like this. Problem with that is, most mechanics are more into nuts-n-bolts and not quite as tech savvy as they need to be to really get a good grip on high tech. Perhaps dealers need to hire a computer geek to train on stuff like this and then utilize them somehow in their organizations to keep them busy - stocking parts, ordering, doing books, etc. In this day and age, a GOOD person like this would be just as valuable to a dealership's business as a top mechanic.

 

[oldstruck]

You make a good point T. langan. But here is the rub. How much does a good mechanic make a yearIJ Computer geeks, that are worth their salt get starting salaries in the $60k and up. There are dealers of all colors that the best salesperson don't even see that kind of income after 15 to 20 years of service. I am a farm manager and I get just under $50k, and I have students of our state's university who work summers for me, graduate and get jobs right out of school starting at $45k and up. That is for a Mechanized Ag degree, Ag Eng degree's get more. These kids can do this stuff, but they are not being hired by dealers. They are being snapped up by the corporations. I am finding if a young person has a farm background, good grades, and aptitude for equipment they are wanted. I also notice that very few of these young people have had a farming parent that lets them operate big equipment and or work on it. IF the parent did, the young person is most likely headed back to farm with the family. That is why the corporations are snapping these young people up. Also did you know the Armed Forces pan for farm kids that have experience with operating big equipmentIJ If they have ran equipment they understand the "seat of your pants" feeling when the machine is in operaton. That is something that is hard to teach someone, especially when it comes to machines that fly. It is one of many reasons that there are fewer people living rural areas. Young people have seen how hard it is to make any money over the years, and they get a chance to make 50K right out of school, even their parents tell them to go, as my father did 25 years ago. I knew he was right, but it broke my heart at the time. In short the dealers can't compete with other industries. If one would be able to hire a comp geek, for $25k-35k a year. I dont want that comp geek near my equipment. I'm afriad it will be worse than no help. You are hoping there is a very special person out there that would do stocking and parts counter work, then run out to a producer in trouble with his monitoring_gps equipment, and deal with an angry owner. Most likely the person would be on call 7 days a week. Plus the dealer would have to invest in many thousands in traning this person and hope he stays to get the dealership's investment in the person back. The good ones would be gone no time. I see it as the problem with AGCO, they want to run with Green and Red in what they offer (at least appear that they are in their advertising),but they seem to want to do it on a shoe string budget. That will only put them further behind. In the end, they will have to team up with someone that can do this, either an independant company like Ag leader, or pay the royalities and use the green version or the red. OR pay the piper and hire a consulting firm and fix their problem from corporate down to the field application of the Fieldstar system. Unfortunately green has made it impossible to adapt to non green equipment. I have brother-in-law that wanted to purchase a Cat tracked tractor this year, since he could get a new one for about $25,000 less than a green version. BUT the guidence system he has is green. To get it to work in the Cat was going to cost him $20,000 to do it and have everything work with everything else that he already has. He went to look for a used green tracked tractor. I saw that as both Cat and Deere lost a sale of a new tractor. This also has affected our state's largest university research center on their purchases of equipment. I have a really bad feeling we are all going to have to make a choice on color and stick with it no matter what. OR Find something that you can use that is not color oriented and live with it, move it everytime you trade. Then keep falling behind over the years, if the company quits. Which is what we did. OR Not have the technology at all. Forgive me for blabbing my opinion on this. But this issue unfortunately is here to stay, we all have to figure out a "work around" for it. Thanks for listening.

 

[dairyman]

The GTA console in the DT200A tractor we rented this fall is the same console that DICKEY-john is selling as their IntelliAg Virtual Terminal. I think AGCO is thinking like you and enlisted the help of the 400 lb gorilla in ag electronics.

 

[tbran]

could I have the SN of your R75IJ