EMILI is working with Bushel Plus (soon to be BranValt) during the 2025 growing season to validate the ability of the Bushel Plus SmartPan System™ and SmartDrop App to provide accurate grain loss measurements during harvest.
Bushel Plus is an agtech company that develops tools and technology to help farmers better understand and manage their harvest. Its flagship product, the SmartPan System™, is a drop pan that can be attached to a combine to help farmers understand their harvest loss.
“A farmer can reseed and respray their crop if needed, but we only harvest once. We only get one shot at it, and we want to make sure it counts,” said Connor Entz, director of research and development at Bushel Plus.
Bushel Plus first began working with EMILI in 2023 after Entz saw the work EMILI was conducting in Manitoba. Over the past two years, Bushel Plus has worked at Innovation Farms to validate the SmartPan System™.
“Working with EMILI and Innovation Farms allows us to validate the use case and value that the system might bring to a grower in understanding harvest loss, and what the economic impact of that is,” said Entz.
While the SmartPan System™ captures harvest loss, the SmartDrop app allows producers to take the measurement from the pan and understand both their loss and the economic impact of it.
To validate the SmartPan System™, the Bushel Plus SmartPan was attached to a John Deere combine during harvest. Samples of harvest chaff were collected along with SmartPan measurements to validate the yield loss sensor. While validating the system during the corn harvest, the Bushel Plus team found the harvest loss to be between 2.0 to 2.4 bushels per acre. By using the SmartPan System™, the combine operator was able to improve inefficient combine settings, reducing harvest loss to 1.4 bushels per acre. Based on a corn market value of $4.75 per bushel, the improved harvest efficiency increased the farmer’s revenue by $3.80 per acre.
During corn harvest, a John Deere S790 combine was
equipped with a Bushel Plus SmartPan System™.
Bushel Plus offers Harvest Academy workshops to provide producers with hands-on education around what to do with the information provided from the SmartDrop app to improve harvest loss. Producers in Manitoba can attend this workshop for free during EMILI’s Producer Day featuring Bushel Plus Harvest Academy.
Entz noted that Bushel Plus is committed to continuing to optimize the SmartPan System™ experience for producers.
“Based on farmer feedback and use case in the field, we are always optimizing and improving the SmartPan System™ experience, not only on the hardware side but on the software side as well, validating potential changes and updates that may come,” said Entz. “The testing opportunity with EMILI at Innovation Farms allows us to validate and optimize those experiences.”
Learn more about Bushel Plus on EMILI’s website, and register today for EMILI’s Producer Day featuring Bushel Plus Harvest Academy.
For more insight into this and other activities, EMILI hosts field tours and demonstrations on Innovation Farms throughout the season to showcase new agricultural technologies, expand innovation opportunities, and increase understanding and adoption of digital tools.