John Deere Bale Mobile App Helps Growers Connect Data to Individual Bales

John Deere introduces its Bale Mobile app to help hay and forage producers get detailed information, improve efficiency, identify bale characteristics and track yields to make decision making easier.

Using John Deere Bale Mobile, producers can capture yield and other relevant data for hay. When used in conjunction with a John Deere 1 Series Large Square Baler (L331 or L341 model), equipped with optional moisture and weight sensors, the new app processes moisture and weight data into useable information for baling, loading and overall farm management.

"Tractor operators can see their information in near real time while Bale Mobile documents the baling process," says Nick McKelvey, John Deere senior marketing rep for hay tools. "Individual bale moisture and weight are tagged to each specific bale (geo-referenced within the app) for improved traceability. Operators can also digitally tag specific bales with additional notes in the app that are useful for sorting and enables them to make better informed on-the-go decisions."

After an operator is finished baling the field, a summary provides crop tonnage, number of bales and average moisture readings. Whether a producer is loading trucks or moving bales, Bale Mobile provides agronomic data for them to plan accordingly.

"With this information in hand, it makes it easier for bales to be sorted by moisture, weight and whether or not there was a preservative applied. If certain bales were wet or weedy, producers can quickly separate them from the hay stack," McKelvey says.

For commercial hay operations, Bale Mobile also makes it possible for producers to remotely view real-time bale weight and moisture readings for each round baler that's operating in the field, simply by using an iPad® or tablet computer.

"A field summary shows yield information to help producers make appropriate agronomic decisions when it comes to taking future actions such as fertilizing, irrigating or reseeding," McKelvey says.