Electric door opener
Shur-Co. introduces the ProTrap Electric Hopper Door Opener. The cleaner, faster way to unload grain from your trailer, the hopper doors open while the operator stands back out of the dust. When the grain is unloaded, another push of the button closes the hopper and you’re ready to go!

This product features a high-torque motor with a 5-year warranty and high-efficiency planetary gear reduction. The electric brake automatically locks the hopper when not in use, and the universal mounting bracket accommodates most trailer models.

The flip-style SMART transmitter for the ProTrap deactivates the system when its cover is closed or after six minutes of inactivity.

—From Shur-Co news release

New grain tracking system
Digi-Star LLC has introduced Grain Tracker, a new multi-function planting and harvest tracking management system. It is the first to be specifically developed as an interface with grain carts, offering significant benefits for record-keeping and documentation in the field, along with report generation and management features in the office.

While grain carts have previously been equipped with scales and indicators, the system features a uniquely designed indicator and proprietary PC software. Indicators are cab-mounted, and allow the operator to record data regarding farm and field name, load numbers, load weights and accumulated totals.

The system is user-friendly and provides easy training for operators. Its unique start•stop feature records weight, time, date and field for each load. The operator simply pushes start when he begins to unload, and stop when completed. The system does the rest.

—From Digi-Star news release

Bedding material for dairy cattle made entirely from recaptured manure solids
A heavy milk cow wants to be bedded well. The choice of the appropriate bedding material is therefore not to be “taken lightly.” The drawback all traditional bedding materials have in common is that they must be brought to the farm first, and must be disposed of later. This naturally involves the costs associated with transporting foreign material to and from the farm and other expenses.

It is worth taking a closer look at the Bedding Recovery Unit (BRU) concept: The BRU is synonymous with recycling and producing fresh bedding material every day – directly on the farm. There is no need for additional storage space due to the BRU’s reduction of the amount of solid matter in the slurry and the overall slurry volume. After the raw manure is pumped from the collecting pit into the FAN press screw separator, the separated solids are then fed into a 10-meter long rotating drum, where the material is cured in temperatures higher than 149º F (65°C) for about 12 hours – creating bedding that is not just dried but also very clean and ready for use.

—From Bauer group news release

New thermal imaging tool
TracebackSolutions.com along with ScoringAg is now marketing the Palmer Wahl Thermal Imaging Camera HSI 3000AS system that provides access to complete animal health source data and certification within the database. An RFID chip, tag or bolus label can be stored and recovered with the animal’s thermal image in the database for animal health issues. A search in seconds by scanning the animal’s RFID or searching the SSI-EID code can give you the origin and other pertinent animal health information along with complete animal history.

The device is being used for real-time diagnostics of animal health problems and when the problem is located the image is saved and entered into the animal’s web-based record. After the treatment period, the database can be accessed to compare images to check on the current healing progress.  PD

—From TracebackSolutions.com news release