ASABE Advances Work on Several Standards

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) has released information about several standards, including the publication of ASABE S573:2018, Procedures for Evaluating Variable-Rate Granular Material Application Accuracy.

The new standard specifies methods for testing and reporting application accuracy of dry granular materials. It will also facilitate the collection and reporting of map-based application accuracy of both single and multiple granular products.

ASABE members with standards access and those with site-license privileges can access the full text of the standard in about six weeks.

ASABE has completed an identical adoption of ISO 5687:2018, Equipment for harvesting—Combine harvesters—Determination and designation of grain tank capacity and unloading device performance. It replaces the adoption of an earlier version, ISO 5687:1999. The 2018 version of ISO 5687 was revised with input from ASABE members, demonstrating the commitment among engineers and farmers to have a consistent and analytical procedure for measuring grain tank capacity and unloading rate.

The society also has completed ANSI/ASABE S602.3, General Safety Standard for Agricultural Tractors in Scraper Applications. The standard was revised to replace the reference to SAE J167, Overhead Protection for Agricultural Tractors–Test procedure and Performance Requirements, with nationally adopted international standard ASABE/ISO 27850:2013, Tractors for agriculture and forestry—Falling object protective structures—Test procedures and performance requirements. Other changes include the incorporation of the latest version of normative references.

The society also has completed the development of ANSI/ASABE S647, Seed Cotton Module Identification System.

The new document standardizes identification numbering of seed cotton modules and provides associated technology to facilitate automatic tracking of seed cotton modules from the field through the module feeder at the gin. Historically, seed cotton modules have often been identified using custom systems developed by individual gins for their customers, or by a third-party supplying tags.

ASABE members can access the full text of the standard by electronic download in about two weeks.

Finally, ASABE has published the second in a three-part series of standards relating to LED radiation measurements for plant growth and development.

ANSI/ASABE S642, Recommended Methods for Measurement and Testing of LED Products for Plant Growth and Development, describes the methods used for measurement and testing of LED packages, arrays, and modules; LED lamps; and any other LED optical radiation devices.

This standard was preceded by the first document in the series, S640, Quantities and Units of Electromagnetic Radiation for Plants (Photosynthetic Organisms), which presented definitions and descriptions of metrics for plant growth and development. The final standard in the series will focus on performance criteria for LED systems used in horticulture.

ASABE members can access the full-text of the standard by electronic download within the next few weeks.

ASABE members with standards access and those with site-license privileges can access the full text of these standards at elibrary.asabe.org. Others can request a copy for a fee directly from the library or by contacting ASABE headquarters at OrderStandard@asabe.org. Association members who are not members of ASABE may request a thumb drive or CD containing standards as a benefit of membership–a $569 value.