VERIFICATION OF YIELD MONITOR PERFORMANCE FOR ON-THE-GO MEASUREMENT OF YIELD WITH AN IN-BOARD ELECTRONIC SCALE

Abstract

A commercial combine equipped with a yield monitor and Global Positioning System (DGPS) was constructed to include a weighing system in the clean grain tank. The scale was able to output its current readings two times per second to a data-logger. The reading from the yield monitor and the scale could be matched to check the accuracy of the yield monitor summary as well as the individual (1 s) readings. Harvest data from fields of corn and oats were collected using this system. Data from both the scale and yield monitor were analyzed to verify the accuracy of the yield monitor. The scale was verified to be accurate by calibration. Results showed that the yield monitor has two data processing streams; one gives the individual weights (1 s interval weights) and the other gives the summary weights (total load weights). The results showed that these two streams are slightly different. Further analysis was conducted to understand these differences. The results showed an increase in the yield monitor accuracy with the harvest strip length. Data collected in 1997 were more accurate than data collected in 1996. It was concluded that improvement was primarily due to the updated yield monitor system (ver. 6.02 CJC).