The applicator embodiments for applying liquid livestock waste in the form of a slurry beneath the soil surface. Some embodiments include a leading swivel-mounted, spring-cushioned, conical-shaped wavy coulter blade angularly offset from the direction of travel which displaces the soil laterally in forming a furrow adapted to receive slurry. The coulter may be trailed by a single or a pair of optionally spring-cushioned rotary closing blade(s) that are to close the furrow containing the deposited liquid. One or more rotary closing blade(s) is optionally spring loaded to follow the soil contour. Some alternative embodiments utilize a rotary covering blade pivot assembly that is positioned lower and more forward, a larger spring for more blade depth, and/or a single or a pair of rotary covering blades for a scooping movement of the soil and results in more soil to cover the deposited liquid. In various embodiments, a number of injector units are mounted in a side-by-side relation in a spaced manner and springs maintain individual assembly alignment when blades are not engaged in the soil.

An agricultural enhancement method for removing or overcoming soil fragipan, hardpan, or other natural and/or artificial soil compaction barriers is disclosed. These barriers prevent root and/or water penetration, which inhibits agricultural development. Consequently, removing and overcoming these barriers is beneficial to the soil and to agricultural yields.

Systems and methods for tracking missed tassels left by a detasseling machine. Rear-facing image data is captured by a camera positioned with a field of view behind the detasseling machine and image processing is applied to the rear-facing image data to quantity a missed tassel metric for a geospatial area. An indication of the missed tassel metric is displayed to an operator of the detasseling machine. In some implementations, the displayed indication of the missed tassel metric is updated in near real-time as the detasseling machine continue to operate in the crop field as an accumulated total missed tassel percentage for the entire crop field and/or as a missed tassel map indicating a percentage of missed tassels for each of a plurality of different geospatial sub-areas in the crop field.

An improved coulter assembly (10) includes a rotatable coulter blade (12) and a supporting assembly (14) having a parallel linkage arm assembly (34) and an active piston and cylinder assembly (58). The assembly (14) serves to maintain the blade (12) at a depth of at least about four inches, in order to prevent clogging of the assembly (10) during use. Another coulter assembly (110) includes a knife adjustment assembly (122) allowing selective vertical and angular adjustment of the knife (116) relative to the coulter blade (112).

An agricultural machine includes a set of ground engaging elements that perform a ground engaging operation. The agricultural machine includes a rearward sensor mounted to the agricultural machine to sense an area of ground behind the agricultural machine and generate a rearward sensor signal. The agricultural machine includes rearward zone generator logic that determines a first zone and a second zone, wherein the first zone and the second zone represent portions of the area of ground behind the agricultural machine. The agricultural machine includes rearward residue generator logic configured to receive the rearward sensor signal and determine a first residue metric indicative of the amount of residue in the first zone. The agricultural machine includes control logic that controls one or more aspects of the ground engaging operation on the area of ground based on the first residue metric.

Applicator embodiments are provided for applying liquid livestock waste in the form of a slurry beneath the soil surface. Some embodiments include a leading swivel-mounted, spring-cushioned, conical-shaped wavy coulter blade angularly offset from the direction of travel which displaces the soil laterally in forming a furrow adapted to receive slurry. The coulter may be trailed by a single or a pair of optionally spring-cushioned rotary closing blade(s) that are to close the furrow containing the deposited liquid. One or more rotary closing blade(s) is optionally spring loaded to follow the soil contour. Some alternative embodiments utilize a rotary covering blade pivot assembly that is positioned lower and more forward, a larger spring for more blade depth, and/or a single or a pair of rotary covering blades for a scooping movement of the soil and results in more soil to cover the deposited liquid. In various embodiments, a number of injector units are mounted in a side-by-side relation in a spaced manner and springs maintain individual assembly alignment when blades are not engaged in the soil.

An agricultural enhancement method for removing or overcoming soil fragipan, hardpan, or other natural and/or artificial soil compaction barriers is disclosed. These barriers prevent root and/or water penetration, which inhibits agricultural development. Consequently, removing and overcoming these barriers is beneficial to the soil and to agricultural yields.

An autonomous cultivator and method thereof for tilling cattle manure of cattle-shed yard area. The manure comprises a tillage, a wet bulk, and a soaked liquid bottom. The cultivator comprises a propulsion system having a motor interconnected to one or more wheels; a plow comprising a member of a group consisting of a primary tillage implement, a secondary tillage implement and any combination thereof; and a computer system comprising a processor, operably linked and providing instructions to the plow and the propulsion system. The processor comprises a non-transitory program having instructions to operate the propulsion system and the plow until an average water content of the manure in the area is reduced by at least 25% compared to a predetermined threshold.

A residue detection and implement control system and method are disclosed for an agricultural implement. The system includes a source of environment data and image data of an imaged area of a crop field containing residue. The system includes a data store containing a plurality of image processing methods and at least one controller that processes the image data according to one or more image processing instruction sets. The controller selects one or more of the image processing methods based on the environment data, and processes the image data using the selected image processing instruction(s) to determine a value corresponding to residue coverage in the imaged area of the field. The controller adjusts the configuration of the agricultural implement to respond to the amount and type of residue detected.

A computer-implemented method and a control system are described for controlling operations involving residue. The method and system include analyzing residue on an agricultural field. A first image is captured with an image sensor of an area of the field that is ahead of or behind the implement. The first image is analyzed to determine an indicator of residue coverage on the field. A subsequent operation on the field is executed, one or more aspects of which are controlled based upon the determined indicator of residue coverage.