Spent some time catching up with the folks at DOT. Things have moved rapidly since the Precision Ag Conference in 2018.
At the show we saw several demonstations. First, with a mockup of a 12 Row, 30″ corn planter. The planter has no fertilizer attachments or seed boxes at the show, but the toolbar and frame could easily accomodate a central fill seed box, a liquid fertilizer tank, and perhaps a dry box.
We talked about capacity and seeing as the seedmaster attachment can hold up to 300 bu of seed, I would expect that a corn fertilizer capacity would be in the range of 6-8MT or 1000-1400 gallons of liquid.
Travel speeds in the field are typical 5-10 mph.
They also brought a 30′ Seedmaster drill, which the DOT unit handled with no problems.
I was suprised to see the size of New Leader spinner box – I didn’t measure it but it was at least a 13′ box which slipped neatly into the U-Frame. The entire process to uncouple the corn planter and hook up the spreader took about 5-6 minutes.
The technology is very exciting to watch. A different concept – power unit and tool that integrate. It eliminates the challenges faced by trying to tow an implement straight.
They did not bring the 1600 gallon, 120′ sprayer attachment from Pattison, but they did have videos of it working. I didn’t video this part, but I believe they have sprayed over 10,000 acres last year in autonomous mode which must be some sort of record.
Here are some videos. Note that in the first video it had rained the night before, quite heavily. The DOT unit is programmed to stop if it spins out – so it shouldn’t get stuck, unlike when I try to test how wet the fields are:
