Ticket Based Harvest Management System and Method

Abstract

A system and method is presented for gathering data concerning harvests. Data tickets are generated when the harvest is received at a point of origination (i.e., the field), local storage, processing, or a customer location. Data tickets can be manually generated using apps running on mobile devices. Users of the mobile devices input the data tickets when harvest is received at these locations. Data tickets are transmitted to a remote server over a wide area network. Analysis of the data tickets is possible through a web interface to the remote server. Beacons that identify various equipment or locations can be used to trigger the automatic generation of data tickets.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for tracking a transfer of materials between a mobile vehicle and a static storage site at a known physical location comprising:
 a) monitoring, using a GPS device, a location for the mobile vehicle;   b) identifying, using the GPS device, the static storage site when the location of the mobile vehicle is proximal to the known physical location;   c) after the identifying step, monitoring an electronic scale to determine a change of weight of the materials while the materials are being transferred from the mobile vehicle to the static storage site;   d) after determining the change of weight, transmitting from the mobile vehicle to a remote server computer a digital data ticket comprising:
 i) data identifying the mobile vehicle, 
 ii) data identifying the static storage site, and 
 iii) data identifying the change of weight of materials. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step c) further comprises monitoring a mobile weight scale fixed to the mobile vehicle. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step c) further comprises establishing a Bluetooth connection between a mobile device residing on the mobile vehicle and a scale integrated into a scale house. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step a) is preceded by the following steps:
 (1) detecting an electronic beacon signal from a plurality of grain carts that approach the mobile vehicle to determine a grain cart identifier for the grain carts,   (2) determining a quantity of material transferred from the grain carts to the mobile vehicle for each of the grain carts, and   (3) moving the motor vehicle to the static storage site;   wherein the digital data ticket further comprises grain cart data, wherein the grain cart data comprises the grain cart identifier and the quantity of material transferred for each of the grain carts.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein step d) occurs automatically without user intervention after determining the change of weight at the static storage site. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step d) occurs automatically without user