Response to the release of the FarmTRX Moisture Sensor has been exceptional this season and we are pleased to be now offering it as part of the FarmTRX yield mapping solution.
With three years of research and development in the lab and on-farm in Saskatchewan, Canada, the FarmTRX Moisture Sensor offers growers reliable moisture sensor readings to track moisture while harvesting and better understand the dry (market) moisture value of their yield. The Moisture Sensor extends the FarmTRX Yield Monitor system to create cleaned, calibrated yield maps and moisture maps at an accessible price point for farmers at all levels – small or big, with new equipment or older.
How Does It Work?
Keeping in line with our goal of not getting in the way at harvest time, the FarmTRX Moisture Sensor has no moving parts and is installed by the user in a matter of hours. As grain enters the combine’s clean grain elevator, it passes over the surface of the FarmTRX Moisture Sensor installed in the cleaning hatch at the base of the elevator. Grain flowing over the Moisture Sensor generates changes in the electric field measured by the sensor, depending on how much moisture is held within the grain. The sensor sends this raw moisture data to the FarmTRX Yield Monitor installed in the cab of the combine where it is converted to moisture values based on crop-specific equations. In combination with FarmTRX yield data, the moisture readings are uploaded, filtered and cleaned to create high-quality yield and moisture maps you can view and share online.
The Design Advantages of the FarmTRX Moisture Sensor
Our objective was to produce a sensor that offered consistent and dependable grain moisture readings at an accessible price. The development of a unit that does not rely on complicated mechanisms to extract grain, take measurements, and return it to the elevator, offers growers a reliable and faster reacting solution for monitoring changes in grain moisture content.
A design with no moving parts means the sensor must be installed in a location where grain flow, although consistent, is often turbulent and somewhat unpredictable. Achieving an electric field measuring device with the right combination of sensitivity, penetration, stability and reliability took months of testing and hundreds of design models. Like all sensors, the surface must be clean to achieve good results. However, FarmTRX’s Internet of Things (IoT) approach to monitoring means hands-off firmware updates can be made easily by the user, allowing growers to buy and install just once and enjoy performance advancements for years.
What Does The Moisture Sensor Offer Growers?
At FarmTRX, we believe you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been. The addition of the FarmTRX Moisture Sensor not only enables better in-field decision making but provides extra insight to your agronomic strategy for next season, rounding out one of the market’s most competitive yield monitoring systems available.
