Connected fleet demonstrated at New Holland Smart Farm

New Holland Agriculture announced its partnership with “Il Raccolto” farm in Bologna, Italy, to demonstrate sustainable farming practices through a circular economy model and a connected fleet environment. With this agreement, Il Raccolto becomes the first “New Holland Smart Farm”, supporting New Holland’s research by providing agronomic data collected through the telematics systems on the machines at work in the farm.

Il Raccolto farm is a 2,000 ha arable and dairy farm, and vineyard. It grows cereals, wheat, livestock feed crops and seeds, as well as grapes. It runs a fleet of more than 80 New Holland machines made up of tractors, combine harvesters, forage harvesters, telehandlers, balers, light construction equipment and grape harvesters.

Ecosystem of interconnected machines

According to Carlo Lambro, New Holland Brand President, visitors will be able to see first-hand how New Holland’s advanced PLM and telematics solutions create an ecosystem of interconnected machines. “The “New Holland Smart Farm” will be a knowledge centre where we will demonstrate our equipment, deliver training, and share our technological and agronomic know-how, with the aim of spreading sustainable farming practices.”

Sustainability as a business approach

Parag Garg, Chief Digital Officer CNH Industrial explains: “At Il Raccolto farm, New Holland will demonstrate first-hand its vision for Agriculture 4.0, as many of the machines in the farm’s fleet are connected through MyPLM Connect telematics. We know that a connected fleet provides more efficiency and uptime – ultimately providing a higher ROI for our customers.”

Carbon-neutral farming

Il Raccolto operates its own anaerobic biodigester and currently produces biogas from the farm’s agricultural waste. It plans to start production of biomethane and is working towards becoming entirely energy independent.

This will enable New Holland to demonstrate its Energy Independent Farm model, where animal and food waste, crop residues or specific energy crops are used to generate biogas in a biodigester. The biogas is used to power the farm and refined into fuel-grade biomethane to power a New Holland Methane Power Tractor.

The by-products of this complete process are used as natural fertilisers and help to improve soil quality. This closed-loop circular economy approach can achieve a carbon-neutral, or even carbon-negative agriculture.

Centre for knowledge exchange

Il Raccolto farm will have a multi-faceted role as the New Holland Smart Farm: it will be the brand’s official Demonstration Farm in Italy and the base for its European Training Team. It will host events for its dealers and customers to experience sustainable farming with New Holland in the field. It will also be a centre for knowledge exchange with New Holland employees, aimed at improving the customer experience through an in-depth understanding of agriculture 4.0 technologies, the circular economy model and biomethane on the farm.