Grainswest Tech 2021

Tech 2021 Grains West 24 Photo:Shutterstock Ward Toma, general manager of Alberta Canola, said he has heard such complaints from farmers for more than a decade. “It’s getting more and more noticeable every year,” he said It is particularly galling for those who can fix their machines. “Some farmers are very good high-tech mechanics,” said Toma. Konschuh appreciates her combine’s technological innovations. The amount of grain her family operation can thresh in an hour is amazing, she said, as is the quality of the harvested grain. However, this comes at the price of near-total reliance on the original equipment manufacturers and authorized dealerships for service and repair. “If you think of the investment we make in those machines, we should have the ability to choose how to service them,” she said. Likewise, if a farmer wants a third-party business to service a machine without violating a warranty, they should have that right, too, she said. If farmers can’t have diagnostic tools and services available for their own use, they put their operational fate in the hands of others. TOOLS FOR THE JOB In the U.S., in 2018, the Far West Equipment Dealers Association and farm equipment manufacturers committed to make diagnostic and repair tools accessible to authorized dealerships and third-party repair shops by January 2021. Whether or not this right-to-repair (R2R) commitment was met varies according to whether you speak to farmers and farm advocates or industry and its supporters. “The tools are there, they’re just not available for sale to farmers,” said Backman. “The [repair] manuals available to farmers are available at an extremely high price point.” For example, a paper or CD copy of the diagnostic technical manual for John Deere combine models 9570 STS, 9670 STS, 9770 STS and 9870 STS costs USD$1,052.35, according to the company’s online Technical Information Store. The repair manual for the same models, which is sold separately, costs USD$266.64 for paper or CD copy and USD$253.31 for download. The industry response to this is such tools are available for sale to farmers in the form of diagnostic tools from dealerships or online diagnostic services. “I’ll be the first to admit, as an industry, we could have done a better job of preparing equipment dealers for this rollout,” said John Schmeiser, CEO of the Western Equipment Dealers Association, which is unrelated to the similarly named U.S. organization. However, while dealerships may have been slow to purchase the diagnostic software tools and repair manuals from manufacturers and make them available to customers, they are there now, he said. “Everything a dealer can purchase from a manufacturer—and that’s special tools, repair manuals and diagnostic equipment—is now available to a farmer or a third-party repair shop, if they want to purchase those items,” said Schmeiser. As an example, he cited John Deere’s Customer Service ADVISOR, a software tool that dealerships can purchase from the company for resale to customers who want in-depth diagnostic and repair capability. He also cited online diagnostic services such as John Deere’s JD-Link. John Deere has 100 per cent met its 2018 commitment to provide comprehensive repair and diagnosis options to customers, said Jonathon Ebert, manager of North American industry and public relations at John Deere. “Customers that have the JD-Link enabled equipment, get access to diagnostic codes and information on their machines straight to their phone or straight to their computer, through that 4G connection to the cloud,” said Ebert. “And that will allow you to do some basic-level diagnosing of what those codes are and what they represent.” Unfortunately, JD-Link only works when farmers have somewhat consistent access to a 4G internet connection, which can be sketchy in the field. As for the high price points for repair manuals, Ebert said they reflect the precision and quality of information that equipment manufacturers want to provide for their customers. “There is significant time and energy that goes into If farmers can’t have diagnostic tools and services available for their own use, they put their operational fate in the hands of others. FEATURE