What’s all the fuss about ISOBUS?
About 20 years ago, agricultural machinery operators worldwide met to solve an industry-wide issue. The equipment attached to tractors to service all stages of the crop process were all operated by separate consoles that needed to be monitored simultaneously by the tractor driver. There was also a lot of incompatibility of equipment and software even though manufacturers were all following the same standard.
What resulted is ISOBUS, the ISO refers to the International Standards Organisation protocol for compatibility of agricultural equipment. The BUS part of ISOBUS refers to the single control console that uses a universal language to communicate between agricultural machinery, equipment and implements from various manufacturers to solve compatibility issues.
The ISOBUS terminal (also known as UT or VT) is usually housed in a tractor’s cab, reducing the number of displays required to just one comprehensive and easy display to control and monitor all the tools and implements making work easier and hugely more efficient for farming customers.
ISOBUS allows farmers to choose the best machine without worrying about incompatibility with other equipment. Most tractors and equipment will have ISOBUS-compatible plugs fitted or can be retrofitted. It’s important to check when purchasing new equipment or implements that it will be ISOBUS compatible.
Farmscan AG’s ISOBUS solution, developed by our engineers and in close collaboration with our customers, incorporates functionality and ease of use versus our competitors. Here are some of the features of our ISOBUS solution for seeders and planters:
- Up to 4 bins or tanks
- Choose solids or liquids OR a combination
- Full rate control
- Full Task Control functionality
- Full Variable Rate Mapping functionality
- ICON driven menus
- Add your Load Cells and get live readings.
- Calibrate with high accuracy ‘on the run’ (needs load cells)
- Easy software uploads – without the need for a dedicated terminal.