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Application Note: Using LS-WIM Axle Scales to Track Inventory
July 9, 2018
Maxwell Farms installed Intercomp’s LS-WIM scales prior to the 2016 harvest to accurately comingle multiple owners’ grain and maximize efficiency and storage. The ability to scale onsite eliminated the need to switch fields when one owner’s wet bin is full. In the past, when an individual owner’s wet bin
was at capacity, they moved the equipment to another owner’s field and began hauling to their storage site. Often the same problem would arise with a full wet bin and harvesting of a field not completed. Maxwell Farms can now haul grain to both sites from the same field avoiding a bottleneck at the dryer and having to change fields. Eliminating this bottleneck and extra transportation time saved them two weeks of harvest time in addition to reducing labor, wear on machinery and fuel costs.
The LS-WIM utilizes Intercomp’s LS20™ Indicator, which allows the driver to proceed over the scale without stopping with the use of a key fob operated by the driver. Each key fob (up to 250 per system) will identify the truck ID, destination, commodity, moisture percentage, source (field/owner) and other key information. Weighing the trucks in motion, and automatically logging transaction information streamlines the unloading process ensuring trucks return to the field faster and limiting harvest down time for the combine.
The LS20™ improves record keeping information by logging a CSV file for future download (up to 1500 records) and can print a ticket if that is required, along with displaying it on a LCD Scoreboard with a Stop and go light. Maxwell Farms simply loaded the CSV file into their management software allowing them to have accurate inventory data for each individual owner. Previously Maxwell Farms minimized comingling grain because of the distance from the storage site of a scale. The billing and tracking of trucking fees is also streamlined with the data logging and reporting capabilities of the LS-WIM system.
This ensures each truck owner is reimbursed correctly and eliminates the human error of paper records. In addition, the ability to enter moisture percentage for each load enabled them to quickly and accurately calculate shrink. Accurate inventory levels allowed Maxwell Farms to market their grain with confidence knowing they had the inventory to meet their grain marketing contracts. The accurate per field harvest data allowed Maxwell farms to easily and accurately maintain per field crop insurance yield records.
Maxwell Farms estimated their ROI on their two LS-WIM Intercomp Scale System investment to be just less than two years. As farms grow larger and margins become slimmer incorporating Intercomp’s LS-WIM into your operation improves harvest efficiency and delivers the accurate inventory to make effective marketing and agronomy decisions to improve your operations bottom line.
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