Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s been offered as accepted fact in more than a few coffee shop conversations that leasing equipment offers significant tax advantages to farmers. Talk to the sales staff at dealerships and you’ll likely hear them make the same claim. Even so, Lance Stockbrugger, a chartered accountant and cash crop producer from Saskatchewan, says the idea […] Read more
Lease or buy?
Accountant dispels the tax advantage myth of leasing
Into the future
Celebrated ag tech guru Scott Shearer sees a profitable path ahead, together with some potential bumps
Reading Time: 4 minutes While it’s not exactly as futuristic as 2001: A Space Odyssey, it’s no longer such a big stretch to imagine the day when a single operator anywhere in the world can remotely control 25 to 30 tractors, and when our crops effectively send us emails letting us know what they need. As professor and chair […] Read more
Rising diesel prices coming
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Higher diesel prices are on the horizon for Canada and the U.S. in 2019. GasBuddy.com senior petroleum analyst Dan McTeague pointed to an increase in overall demand, combined with a slowdown in heavy oil production and the federal carbon tax as well as pending IMO 2020 regulations — that is, the International Marine […] Read more
New utility tractors for 2019
Deere and Case IH ramp up their offerings in this popular segment
Reading Time: 4 minutes The number of models in John Deere’s 5 Series family of utility tractors has grown by four this year, along with expanded lists of options and available sophistication. The 5090R, 5100R, 5115R and 5125R, which span the 90- to 125-engine horsepower range, will now be available with a list of options that includes a factory-installed […] Read more
Selling hi-tech to farmers
Why is so much effort being put into new ways to sell high technology to farmers?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Several farm machinery writers occupied the two rows of mock tractor seats, each with a control armrest, which lined both sides of a special trailer on a warm January morning. Yes, an actual warm January morning, because the trailer was parked in an Arizona farm field, a location that Case IH had chosen for holding […] Read more
Farm groups see something for everyone in federal budget
Reading Time: 4 minutes Response so far from farm and agribusiness organizations to Tuesday’s pre-election budget suggests the federal government has managed to find at least one line item for everyone in the ag sector. Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s budget pledges compensation for supply-managed sectors facing financial hits from international trade pacts, funding for a new federal food policy […] Read more
Buhler to build bigger Kubota tractors in Winnipeg
Reading Time: 2 minutes Kubota’s highest-horsepower tractors yet for the North American farm market are going to be made in Canada. Winnipeg manufacturer Buhler Industries, the maker of Versatile tractors, on Thursday announced a “long-term” original equipment manufacturer (OEM) deal with Japan’s Kubota Corp. to “develop and produce a new tractor platform in the mid-range front-wheel assist segment.” For […] Read more
Customizing the planter
New models stretch planter capability and flexibility
Reading Time: 3 minutes Planters have long been at the centre of precision farming technology, and an ever-growing list of component options these days continues to improve their efficiency. With so many options now to choose from, more and more farmers are looking to customize their purchase to exactly meet the needs on their particular farm. Now, AGCO is […] Read more
Alberta input retail chain expands westward reach
Reading Time: < 1 minute A pair of independent crop input retail outlets in west-central Alberta will be networking with seven others by month-end. Crop Management Network (CMN), a joint venture between an employee-owned network of retail outlets and La Coop federee’s Agrico Canada arm, announced Wednesday it has reached a deal to buy Performance Ag Group. Performance Ag, which […] Read more
CNH begins 3D-printing spare parts
Reading Time: 2 minutes In a twist on the idea of ordering parts online, the parent firm for New Holland and Case IH is trying out the use of 3D printing to make plastic — and eventually metal — spare parts. British-based equipment manufacturing giant CNH Industrial said Monday it has already produced its first 3D-printed spare parts, making […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
