Features added to Blue Vantage improve operator’s control

WILLIAMSBURG, Iowa — Operating more than one Kinze planter in a field will be easier for farmers when planting crops in 2022.

“With our shared coverage mapping you have the ability to have two or more planters in the same field and share the coverage location of each planter,” said Brad Niensteadt, Kinze lead product specialist.

Blue Vantage is a dedicated planter display that controls all the functions of Kinze planters.

“We do a software update once a year in February,” said Niensteadt during a Kinze Media Day. “There are no unlock codes in the display. Once you buy it, you get any features we add with no hidden fees.”

The shared coverage mapping will help farmers with logistics.

“For guys with certain terrain, a large planter makes it difficult to plant the headlands so they come in with a 12-row planter to do the headland passes,” Niensteadt said. “Then they come in with a larger planter and do the long, easy passes so you can have two different size units in the same field maximizing their efficiency.”

With the map detail, farmers can tap anywhere on the tablet screen and see a pinpoint snapshot of what’s happening in that exact location of the field.

“We have the capability to get down to the 5-inch zoom level to see things like what fertilizer or insecticide is actually applied or the downforce information,” Niensteadt said. “And now with this directional arrow, you can move back and forward, row to row.”

The information is mapped row by row.

“If there is a yellow spot, you can move to it and find out exactly what is going on and that gives the customer the ability to address or make changes as he is driving through the field,” Niensteadt said.

Customers can put up to four cameras on their Kinze planter.

“One is factory installed, mainly for transport, so you can see people driving behind you,” Niensteadt said. “You can order up to three more cameras and decide where to put them like by the fertilizer tank so you know how full it is.”

The weight transfer system on the Kinze planters uses hydraulic pressure to force weight out to the wings to alleviate some of the weight in the center of the planter to help reduce pinch rows.

“On Blue Drive planters, this will automatically adjust based on the seed weight in the tanks by taking the information from the bulk fill scales and changing the pressure out to the wings of the planter to help offset the weight in the center of the machine,” Niensteadt said. “The beauty is it doesn’t require the customer to do anything. It automatically adjusts the pressure for you.”

The tablet has a docking station that lives inside the tractor cab and the tablet can be removed and used by the customer outside of the tractor.

“You can run through the demo and training mode while sitting in an easy chair,” Niensteadt said.

When the software update is completed each February, the background picture changes so it is easy to know when the process is complete.

“You don’t have to be hooked to the planter to do the update,” Niensteadt said. “Once you update the tablet and attach it to the planter, the system recognizes the table has new software and it automatically sends the update to the planter.”

Anything that needs to be set up on the planter can be completed on the Blue Vantage tablet.

“We provide factory presets by crop such as the vacuum settings we recommend for planting corn,” Niensteadt said. “You have the ability to add boundary and prescription maps.”

Farmers can set population ranges for planting.

“You can set every row a different population if you choose or shut off rows for those guys planting seed corn,” Niensteadt said. “It is all single row control — shut offs, fertilizer, insecticide, everything is controlled individually.”

A lot of time has been spent on improving the health and diagnostics page of Blue Vantage.

“If there’s an error you can tap on the row and it will tell you everything going on with the row, like the seed sensor was lost,” Niensteadt said. “It will give you a list of issues you may run into and steps on how to fix it to help you fix issues in the field.”

Farmers can view planting maps even when they are not in the field.

“It is an active map so you can zoom in and out to see what was going on in a yellow spot,” Niensteadt said. “And you can change map layers to look at different things like ground contact.”

Kinze has pre-made PDF maps in Blue Vantage that feature summaries of every field in the display.

“The summary reports of each field can be exported to a USB drive and those reports can be printed from any computer,” Niensteadt said.

The acre counter feature will record the acres for whatever a farmer chooses.

“A lot of guys want that for maintenance items like vacuum seals or for custom acres,” Niensteadt said.

Blue Vantage supports 50 counters.

“We’ve never filled one up,” Niensteadt said. “But it will start alarming you before it gets too full and won’t record anything else.”

For more information about Kinze equipment, go to www.kinze.com.