expedition team at South Pole

To the South Pole and back, on a Massey Ferguson

A modified MF 5610 and its crew gets a chance to prove their stuff, retracing the route of Sir Edmund Hillary’s historic 1958 adventure to the Antarctic

Reading Time: 4 minutes At the North Pole, it was December 9, and the jolly old elf in the bright red suit was preparing as usual for his annual Christmas Eve sleigh ride. A world away, meanwhile, and even more incredibly, an expedition aboard a bright red Massey Ferguson 5610 tractor was powering its way to the geographic South […] Read more

Kubota tractor at a farm show

A new colour in farm tractors

Kubota moves toward its goal of being a major player in the ag equipment market

Reading Time: 5 minutes The rumours had been building for months. There were even spy pictures posted on the Internet as possible proof. Then in September, Kubota’s global headquarters made it official. The company is taking direct aim at the farm market. More specifically, Kubota launched a new, powerful line of M-7 Series tractors, and these new tractors are […] Read more


hanson acres

Hanson Acres: The hard decision

Elaine was furious. “I know exactly what you’re doing.”

Reading Time: 5 minutes It was nearly midnight when Elaine and the baby got home. She carried the sleeping little girl in from the car. It had been a long day for one-year-old Jenny. Four and a half hours each way to Saskatoon and back, and a long afternoon entertaining her grandmother while Elaine went to a meeting. Elaine […] Read more

Kinze seed planter

New planters offer speed, greater precision

Machinery Guide looks at three new models ready to dive into the 2015 crop year

Reading Time: 3 minutes Spring seems to come faster every year, which is all right on the farm because speed is also the focus of today’s newest planter designs. Getting the job done faster, and with greater precision and improved seed singulation are the hallmarks of this year’s newest models, which are embracing enhanced electronics and some incredibly innovative […] Read more


John Deere’s new 9R tractors are being released into a Canadian market that has seen sales of similar machines decline almost 20 per cent so far this year.

It won’t be easy being green — or red, or blue

Tough decisions lie ahead, with all the major brands needing to throttle back production but still keep up with changing market demand

Reading Time: 5 minutes What a difference a year makes. The heady days of overfilled order books at ag equipment assembly plants have faded into history. By the end of September, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) was reporting year-to-date sales of four-wheel-drive tractors in Canada were down by 19.8 per cent. Combine sales had slumped even further, dipping […] Read more

Gleaner S8 Series

A lean year ahead for combine sales

Innovation, improvement is making for the best new combines ever

Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s said that yield is the ultimate measure of a growing season, and if that’s true, then the combine is the ultimate device for measuring success. Sales of combines, like most farm machines, are admittedly finding the going tough these days. In its most recent assessment, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) reported that North […] Read more


hanson acres

Hanson Acres: Where’d that combine come from?

“He must have seen this coming,” Jeff said. Dale just shook his head

Reading Time: 5 minutes Jeff was looking at his laptop screen at the kitchen table when his father, Dale, came in the back door. “There’s coffee on,” Jeff said, not looking up. “Elaine’s at a meeting in the city, but she left some cookies on the cupboard.” “I’d better pass on the cookies. I just had breakfast in town […] Read more

award presentation

Cautiously aggressive

What does it take to be inducted into a business hall of fame? CG asked Gavin Semple, the first inductee into the new Saskatchewan Manufacturing Hall of Fame

Reading Time: 5 minutes At first, the comment seemed counter-intuitive. I was sitting across a small table from Gavin Semple, chair of the Saskatchewan-based Brandt Group of Companies, during Canada’s Farm Progress Show in Regina in June. Semple had just been recognized as the first-ever inductee into the newly created Saskatchewan Manufacturing Hall of Fame, and I wanted to […] Read more


red tractors

Machinery Guide: Compact and utility tractors

Don't be fooled by appearances when it comes to performance

Reading Time: 3 minutes The word “small” can be very misleading, especially when it comes to farm tractors, so shift your thinking with a look at today’s compact and utility tractors. We’re hoping you’ll see that when it comes to performance, you can’t let yourself be fooled by appearances. These five manufacturers are touting designs and specifications that have […] Read more

hanson acres

The Hansons: A family that farms together…

“It’s good working with you people,” Ed said, “but it will be even better not to see you for the next six months.”

Reading Time: 5 minutes The Hansons’ never-ending harvest finally finished on Friday afternoon. They could barely believe they were really done. They’d spent the last three days racing against the rain in the forecast to get to the north end of the soybean field before it got too wet. “I never thought we’d finish this year,” Jeff told his […] Read more