Roland Wohlgemuth is an enterprising farmer who grows wheat, canola and peas on his 3,000-acre spread near Benito, Man. He’s been at it for 20 years, and like most producers, Wohlgemuth is well versed in finding solutions to problems that inevitably arise from time to time on the farm.
One of them is quite ingenious — a camera arm device that allows drivers to safely monitor how a grain trailer is being loaded from the comfort of their seats.
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Using the weight of the tarp on top of a grain hopper, the spring-loaded camera arm will automatically rise up when a tarp is opened and then go back down as the tarp is closed. The device is compatible with both manual or electric tarps, and its heavy-duty spring enables the camera arm to move back into position if it’s jostled by low doors or auger spouts.
Wohlgemuth came up with the camera arm concept 14 years ago; however, it’s only recently that he decided to share his novel idea with other farmers.
“It was really a solution to a problem we had on our farm. There weren’t a lot of grain carts around then, and so we were unloading straight off the combines into the truck. It was pretty hard to do,” he says.
“When you’re sitting in the driver’s seat of the truck, you have no idea what’s going on at the back with the trailer. There’s no way to see what’s happening there (and) you’re always doing a bit of guessing.”
Scrambling up and down a ladder is one way to gauge how quickly a grain hopper is being filled, but Wohlgemuth figured there had to be a safer — and more convenient — option during hectic times, such as harvest.
“We ended up brainstorming a bit and came up with this idea,” he says. “This just takes all the guesswork out of it because it’s the same as if you’re standing on the top of the trailer looking back. You can see everything very well.”
As Wohlgemuth points out, farmers aren’t ones to waste time, so the first camera arm prototype was constructed within a few days.
“It was used on our farm for probably 12 years before I decided to patent it and put it on the market,” he says. Wohlgemuth now holds a U.S. patent for the camera arm, and the patent is pending in Canada.
Last year, Wohlgemuth struck a deal with Saskatchewan custom tarp manufacturer Michel’s Industries Ltd. to use the camera arm as part of a monitoring system that uses high-quality wireless cameras and seven-inch monitors that can be plugged into the power outlet in a truck cab.
Camera arm kits available
Brad Michel, general manager at Michel’s Industries, says the family-owned business near St. Gregor, Sask., is run by farmers, so it didn’t take much convincing about the potential benefits of the camera arm.
“Roland approached us to sell it and we really liked the idea,” says Michel.
The company started selling its first camera arm and kits in May. The package includes two cameras mounted to two camera arms and a monitor, which retails for $1,400. Up to four cameras can be used per monitor, and the monitors can be set for single, split and quad views.
Michel says the system will work on any trailer or Super B, and it can be purchased by contacting Michel’s Industries or affiliated dealers.
Wohlgemuth also sells camera arm packages through his own website at thecameraarm.com.
While Wohlgemuth hasn’t invented anything else he’d care to commercialize right now, it’s not something he’s ruling out. “It was interesting to do. It’s fun to find a product that helps people,” he says.
