SASKATCHEWAN, Canada – All too often a crop is not harvested by a combine as efficiently as it could be due to operator error in setting the machine correctly. That can result in significant grain losses as well as extra fuel use, time wasted and, of course, money.
Operators may not be familiar with a certain model of combine, nor the crop that he or she is tasked to harvest. Therefore mistakes can be made. But help is now at the touch of a button for those operators, farmers and contractors to ensure they have the settings correct – and to proceed with greater harvesting efficiency.
A unique online portal at www.combinesettings.com is now available to guide combine operators to the correct settings, thanks to the input from other operators. The brainwave is thanks to Saskatchewan crop farmer Trevor Scherman. He thought of the idea with company co-founder Megan Madden, also raised on a farm in the region.
“Basically combinesettings.com is a peer-to-peer platform for farmers to share verified combine settings globally for any combine, any crop, anywhere,” Madden said. “Trevor previously invented the Schergain harvest-loss device and saw many of his customers come back to him after they found out how much grain they were losing.
“They were keen to find out how to set their combine to mitigate their losses. He came up with the idea of connecting everyone online. And together we developed the combinesettings.com platform as it is today.”
Following development in 2022, and a bit of tweaking, the duo – plus Scherman’s wife, Michelle Scherman, who is a partner and company financial officer – took their technology to their first show to introduce it to the public. Little did they know how fast it would take off.
“We softly launched combinesettings.com at the Ag in Motion show in Saskatchewan in July of 2022,” Madden said. “At this event we won the Ag Innovation Award, which really spiraled us on a rocket ship to growth that we hadn’t expected.
“From there we were invited to Agritechnica 2023 in Germany, had outreach from accelerator programs, received a partnership offer from Australia and so much more that catapulted us years ahead in our business plan.”
Combinesettings.com is designed by farmers for farmers. But it now has a bigger reach as well, with potentially lucrative partnerships brewing on the horizon.
“Our initial iteration of the site is currently built with farmers only in mind,” she said. “That being said, our next stage of development is a white-label (original equipment manufacturer) dealer, retailer program so those companies can purchase subscriptions for their own farmer customers and give them access as a benefit to buying a combine.
“Currently our beta testers are primarily North American and German. But once we release the full version of the site it will be available globally and have users from all agricultural regions of the world.
“Right now all users are on a free trial as we work through beta testing and gathering feedback. Going forward, users will have the option of a limited-use free account or a CAN$199 equivalent (currently about USD$145) annual subscription. And only one (subscription) is needed per farm as you can add unlimited combines to one farm account.”
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Combine users all around the world simply enter the settings they find works the best for the particular machine they are driving and in which specific crop. Other users then tap into those settings to make their own combining operation more efficient.
“There will be many more technological advantages for users subscribing to the paid account,” Madden said. “Searching will be more advanced. The ability to comment, ask questions, chat with other posters, vote for settings and more will only be available to premium account holders.
“Our system saves combine operators time and puts more grain in the bin. They don’t have to make endless phone calls to different techs and neighbors, no more posting on Facebook groups and sifting through armchair-expert answers.
“Combinesettings.com allows operators to get the settings they need immediately – as recommended by other farmers who have the same combine, crops and conditions. Or access the technical experts from those who made or service your combine as well.
“All our settings comes from user-verified data as input by farmers or experts. It doesn’t have the extra steps of trying to integrate (original equipment manufacturer) hardware or software. It’s simply inputting a few settings.”
The team has what they say are exciting plans for future development of the portal and the company, some of which are in advanced stages.
“Since our initial version we have already added mapping functionality and are currently feeding data into our custom AI GPT (artificial-intelligence generative pre-trained transformer) for it to be able to read setting input both from the app and other input sources, to be able to make learned recommendations as well. The future plans beyond that are still secret!”
The company encourages farmers to use the system and send feedback on how their experiences were. Madden emphasizes all future developments will depend greatly on user feedback because it’s a system “designed for farmers by farmers.”
The team says the new platform will also be useful for modern combines equipped with software from the manufacturer. Those combines often receive regular updates from the manufacturer or may even be controlled by artificial intelligence to optimize combine settings automatically.
“Even the combines that are auto-setting often need adjustment as crop and harvesting conditions change,” Madden said. “However we are currently focusing on helping the segment of growers who are not buying brand-new equipment and are currently not receiving adequate help setting their combines from the dealers or manufacturers due to resourcing.
“Our goal is to help dealers and manufacturers to support these growers that don’t currently have the newest technology but are still important customers. Our goal in the future would be to help dealers and manufacturers with settings as we will have a large database of real-world settings that will help their (artificial intelligence) models.”
Visit www.schergain.ca and www.combinesettings.com for more information.
This is an original article written for Agri-View, a Lee Enterprises agricultural publication based in Madison, Wisconsin. Visit AgriView.com for more information.
With 20 years experience behind him, award-winning agricultural journalist Chris McCullough is always on the hunt for his next story. He grew up on the family dairy farm in the heart of Northern Ireland and is based on the country’s east coast. He travels around the world to bring readers international news.