Yield mapping has been available on combine harvesters since the mid 1990s. The principles of the technology has not changed in that time. The idea is still to get an accurate picture of the variation in yield across a field so that agronomic decisicion can be tailored at a higher resolution. The technology still relies on
But there has been a lot of progress. Methods with more accurate measurement and higher resolution, and new metrics, have been developed by all the major players. One of the latest additions has been the introduction of LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) sensors on the cab of the harvester to read off the dry matter yield in real time, providing information both to the flow of information feeding precision agronomic decisions, but also to automatically adjust harvester settings in real time so as to ensure an optimal feed of the crop into the machine.
And, of course, it isn’t just combine harvesters. Forage harvesters appear to have moved in lock-step with combine harvesters. Horticultural crops, particularly potatoes, have also seen some promising advances.
A major bottleneck in the process is still the management of data – if the process is to seem too much to a user it is likely to be in the steps of getting the data off the harvester, into a digital platform, that can develop prescription files, that are then uploaded to the next machine.
PROJECT FACTS
This project is financed by Kunskapsnav för jordbrukets digitalisering (crudely translated to “Knowledge hub for the digitalisaiton of agriculture”) at Linköping University. It is a simple scan of what is currently available in the world
- Timespan: 2025-01 to 2025-06
- Budget: 100 hours
- Report: During June 2025.
RESULTS
The results of this work area primarily available in Swedish on the Knowledge hub for digitalisation of agriculture. English versions are also available on the knowledge base hosted on this site.