At Agritechnica 2025 last November, Geringhoff joined that list of companies with its camera-based, AI system called Yield EyeQ.

Yield EyeQ scans the ground at the combine header to alert producers if they’re leaving money on the field in terms of grain loss.

“We scan the ground behind the header, and then, with software, we analyze if there’s any ears or any crop left in the field,” said Hendrick Schneider, product manager with Geringhoff.

A number of companies have designed after-market products such as drop pans to measure harvest loss at the rear of the combine, but less attention has been paid at the header.

In 2019, field research by the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute in Western Canada estimated combine losses for canola averaged nearly three per cent of a growers’ total yield.

Cameras for the Yield EyeQ system are connected to a combine header via a linkage arm.

Once power is routed to the camera, a wi-fi signal connects the camera to a tablet where the software gathers data collected from the harvest floor.

The camera system is set up to take two pictures per second. The number of images it photographs can be adjusted in either directionm depending on operator preference.

Schneider recommended that cameras be mounted at both ends of the header to effectively monitor the ground.

Based on the photographs the cameras take, software in the Yield EyeQ generates graphs to show the extent of harvest loss.

A heat map can also show differences between fields, monitor changes throughout the day or how fields have performed in the past.

At the show, Schneider said that the current system was only set up for harvesting wheat and soybeans.

“Those are the two main crops we have at the moment,” said Schneider.

“Future-wise, we’d like to look into different crops, canola, corn, lentils.”

For now, Yield EyeQ only monitors the ground as it passes over the field.

Schneider said that future improvements to the system could include having an ISOBUS connection so operators could adjust equipment on-the-go to help reduce grain loss.

“Further ahead, we’d like to have communication with the combine,” said Schneider, “so maybe those adjustments can be done automatically from the combine cab.”

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Geringhoff’s TruFlex Razor Draper header offers some unique features that help reduce kernel loss and improve material flow, including the Integrated Air System (IAS).

In that system, a fan mounted on the rear of the header forces air up from the cutter bar toward the rear of the belts to prevent kernel loss at the front of the header over the cutter bar.

“Nobody else has that,” Haas says. “It’s something unique. We started here in Western Canada in 2020 and tested it and improved it. We now have about 140 headers out (in Canada) and 80 per cent of them have the air system on it.

“We started testing at Olds College. In Europe we’ve tested with different varieties of canola. Here when we tested it (against) a header without (IAS); it’s over a bushel, about one and a half (in loss savings). When you have a head without the air system, (loss) went to two, to two and half bushels sometimes. With ours, it reduced it to 0.5 bushel.

“Farmers can see the cutter bar is way cleaner. In cereal there’s a benefit. If it (the crop) is really short, in dry years or where it’s dried out, it feeds better. So you don’t need the reel so much. But the big difference is in canola, lentils, lighter crops.”

A narrow four-inch side panel also helps reduce loss in canola when fitted with a vertical cutter bar.

The TruFlex Razor headers use a three-section design that allows for each wing to flex 26.5 to 36 inches, depending on the working width. Each wing can pivot four degrees up and five degrees down.

Models equipped with the flexible cutter bar option get another six inches of flex there, for a total 42 inches of ground contouring on the 45-foot model.

The cutter bar height is controlled hydraulically and can be set to automatically contour to the terrain, causing the combine to raise or lower the feeder house to maintain a consistent cutting height.

“It has hydraulic gauge wheels,” Haas says. “So if you calibrate this header on your combine it will talk. Our header tells the combine what to do, lift the feeder house up, down, raise it (the header wings) left, right. If you drive in ditches or in sloughs you will have a constantly perfect height on your cutter bar — so it doesn’t dig into the dirt. On headlands you can manually lift one wing up (to clear ground obstacles).”

All hydraulic systems on the header are self-contained. The header only requires the standard PTO drive from the combine to operate its systems.

“The hydraulic pump and oil tank, everything is on the header,” he adds. “The gearbox is a high-end build. Everything is hydraulic on this header, so if the cutter bar hits something, it doesn’t break. It stops. If something gets blocked, the relief block for the oil will open and not break or damage anything. It will just stop.”

READ MORE: Geringhoff partners with Agco

The TruFlex Razor header is available in 35-, 40- and 45-foot widths, but Haas says other models are now in field trials that will eventually offer more cutting width choices. And Geringhoff headers are compatible with all combine brands.

“We can put this header on all varieties of combines,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s green, yellow, red or black, whatever.”

Geringhoff headers come with a standard two-year factory warranty, but a longer five-year warranty option is available. The company now has a warehouse in Saskatoon to supply Western Canada.

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