SmartPan technology measures grain loss from back of the combine

Grain loss can happen through the back of the combine, and it can add up quickly, affecting the farm’s bottom line, according to Bushel Plus CEO Marcel Kringe.

“The grain that kicks out the back of a combine is going to be significant. That’s a lot of money you’re throwing on the field that you don’t even know you’re leaving behind and a lot of farmers don’t even realize that they’ve got this problem that is often due to improper combine settings,” Kringe said.

The Bushel Plus SmartPan System, connected to a mobile app, is a technology that helps farmers measure the amount of grain they are losing out of the back of their combine due to inaccurate combine settings or other problems with the combine. It will work with any type of grain.

“If you don’t check, you don’t know. Farmers have all these setups where you push a lot of buttons in the cab, but that’s not enough. Those are just basic starting points, and a lot of people don’t realize they need to go the extra limit,” he said.

The factory gives farmers guidelines for what their combine settings should be, but they aren’t a precision solution, he pointed out.

“Farmers have seen their grain loss reduced by 10 percent by using the SmartPan tool and making adjustments to their combine settings,” Kringe said. “Built-in sensors don’t always account for variables like terrain, machine wear or crop type. If you want accurate data, you need to get out behind the combine and measure actual loss in the field to calibrate those sensors properly.”

Kringe said farmers attach the SmartPan magnetically underneath the combine.

“It works on an app in a remote. As you’re driving the combine, it will catch all of the grain that comes out. You can literally do a measurement test where it measures the grain flowing from the header into the SmartPan,” he said.

Farmers can start cutting the crop in their combine, and when the combine is running full, remotely drop the pan, and manually collect a sample of the grain that is being lost. The sample is then processed using the Bushel Plus Air Separator, which removes chaff and debris to isolate clean grain. The grain is weighed with a digital scale, and the results are logged on the SmartDrop mobile app within a couple of minutes.

“The SmartPan System can calculate and quantify the grain loss (up to 10 bushels per acre) that farmers may not be aware of due to misaligned components in their combines,” he said.

Kringe said one of the worst cases he has come across was a farmer who found he had been losing 10 bushels of wheat per acre when he stopped his combine and checked the SmartPan tool.

“Our SmartPan system, connected to the app, showed his sieves were broken. He wouldn’t have known that if he wasn’t using the SmartPan,” he said.

The app tells the farmer whether the loss is coming from the header, rotor or cleaning shoe, and farmers can then make targeted adjustments that protect yield and profit.

Bushel Plus and SmartPan started off as a hobby to make things easier for the farmer but evolved into a company that exports the system and other products into 35 countries. A decade ago, the SmartPan used “laminated sheets with charts on it that would show you the different loss numbers for different situations.”

“We started with the app in 2018. It was a very basic calculator, but now it has evolved, and we can break it down to bushel per acre grain loss and all the way to dollars per hour. And we can save combine settings and text, combine settings to other drivers and share what’s best with people,” he said. “The SmartPan is not just a tool, it’s a system to learn more about your entire machine because as you use it, you realize you can harvest more acres per hour. You might be able to drive faster or save more grain.”

Kringe grew up on a small farm in Canada and was a custom combiner throughout his 20s. He said he worked on many different models of combines from different manufacturers.

“I worked on farms and custom harvesting operations, and I worked with combine specialists that were trying to set combines, so I was helping with the settings,” he said.

Kringe noticed grain loss out the back and worked on ideas to fix the problem. He eventually came up with the SmartPan technology.

In addition to helping farmers, combine manufacturers use the system tool to set up combines.

“We’ve been helping many farmers and also the major dealerships, John Deere, New Holland, Case-IH and others use our products in their engineering departments and their dealerships to help set up combines,” he said. “So, if the engineers are using our product, farmers can, as well.”

Kringe said it was a “big testament for us that engineers from these dealerships were utilizing the Bushel Plus SmartPan to test combines in the field and build the new combine models.”

Bushel Plus also makes customized concaves for combines that can improve the separation of grain from the chaff, further reducing grain loss.

“A lot of farmers don’t change their concaves between corn and soybeans. Now they probably should. They’re going to increase their yield because the precision of concaves that are built specifically for different crops,” he said.

The company is currently expanding its dealer network in the U.S., which is a new market for the Canadian company. The SmartPan was recently displayed at one of the largest farm shows in Canada, Ag in Motion.