His answer was a definitive “yes.”

A couple of hours later, the White House announced that was not correct, and all existing tariffs on Canada and Mexico will remain unchanged and in place. But most of the exact details surrounding the so-called “pause” in the U.S. tariffs remained murky.

Heightened uncertainty

This latest pause and reduction follows on a string of similar proclamations from the White House over the past three months. It’s the kind of yes-no-maybe approach to international trade that is something seemingly more suited to an old Marx Brothers movie than the strategic actions of a competent administration.

While that temporary lowering of tariffs on some countries was welcomed by the stock market, which saw significant gains following the announcement, it only heightens the uncertainty surrounding international trade and business in the U.S.

As a result, ag equipment brands who have to ship high-value machines across borders have a lot to lose if a major shipment gets caught in the midst of a policy change.

AGCO to stop delivery to U.S.

So far, however, only one manufacturer, AGCO, has publicly stated its intention to pause equipment deliveries into the U.S. It manufactures some Fendt and Massey-Ferguson branded equipment in Germany and France, among other locations, for the North American market.

“The U.S. and reciprocal tariff landscape remains very fluid,” AGCO stated in a press release, “While we assess potential impacts, finished equipment from non-U.S. production facilities intended for the U.S. will be temporarily held at their current locations outside the U.S. The shipment of parts into or from the U.S. is not currently impacted by this action.”

The company said it is currently evaluating the best way to continue delivery of machines, particularly those made in Europe, to farmers globally.

While Canada has imposed retaliatory tariffs on several imports from the U.S., they are unlikely to cause any disruption to ag equipment imports from American manufacturing plants, at least not yet. The only ag-related machines on the current list of products subject to Canadian tariffs is mowers.

“AGCO continues to ship finished products from the U.S. to other countries where there are currently no applicable tariffs,” the company statement read. “We expect to provide an update on the potential financial impact of tariffs at our next earnings call in early May.”

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It’s the next tractor for Massey Ferguson with the unique 18 cm gap between the cab and the engine, which makes it more conformable for the operator and with better sight lines.

It’s also new highest horsepower tractor available from Massey Ferguson at 425 maximum horsepower. Five other versions of the 9S will step down in horsepower to a low of 285.

The tractor is engineered for flexibility, with a significant range of weight that can be added to the tractor depending on use, and all the latest automation, including automated headland turning.

The tractor will first be available in Europe and then at points after that in the rest of the world.

Precision conditioning for hay?

Also in the AGCO area, Fendt has created a way to change the conditioning level as a mower is cutting through a hay field. I well remember a hay crop where most of it was ready to go, but one area with more biomass was not. I fed those bales first, but it was not optimal.

The new Fendt adjustable conditioner will have three ways to evaluate when the conditioner should be changed. A farmer will be able to alter it from the cab, or it can be automated, either from a satellite evaluation of biomass used to create field map, or from sensors on the mower. From a complexity perspective, a quick control from the cab would make the most sense to me.

Automation options developing, but slowly

There are many agriculture companies dabbling in automation, artificial intelligence, or both. AI, especially I think is losing its precisions and is being applied to anything with advanced computer processing. That also means the technology is becoming more prevalent.

The newest forms of autonomous units, shown at Agritechnica, are coming from companies not involved in making tractors today, including Kuhn and various startups ranging from Naio to Robotti to AgXeed, which might be the most market-ready autonomy product out there, with sales already to 20 countries, including Canada.

The vanguard of autonomy in horticulture, with the most market-ready advances being adopted in fruits and vegetables. There are a couple of reasons for this, including labour being so important and so difficult to find in fruit and vegetable production. There are also standardized production areas in fruit and vegetable – trees and vineyards are planted to exact specifications.

There are lots of companies buzzing around agriculture looking for how they can join the rush to agriculture automation and artificial intelligence. I met a guy from Britain, who lives in Sweden as I was picking up pizza near where I’m staying in Hannover, Germany for Agritechnica. He works for a company that provides software that manages sensors in large machines and uses computers to monitor and recommend maintenance. They expect there are places where such software could provide value in agriculture. Also, in a strange quirk, that guy’s uncle is a former premier of Nova Scotia, John Savage.

– John Greig is a senior editor with Glacier FarmMedia. Watch for much more detail on these and many more stories and videos from Agritechnica in our Glacier FarmMedia newspapers and websites.

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From farmers’ perspective, the two companies say their combined technology offering is expected to offer “seamless integration and connectivity across geographies, equipment brands and the crop life cycle.”

The structure of the deal announced Thursday will see Trimble receive $2 billion cash and a 15 per cent share in the new joint venture, for total pre-tax value of about $3 billion accrued to that company (all figures US$).

Agco, whose machinery brands include Massey Ferguson, Fendt, Challenger and Valtra, contributes its JCA Technologies business to the new j.v. and will hold the 85 per cent majority stake in the venture.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2024, pending the usual approvals and other closing conditions.

The new j.v. won’t include Trimble’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) or guidance tech, but Trimble will provide those to the new venture under a new long-term supply agreement and technology transfer and license agreement — along with an agreement making the new venture a “channel partner” of Trimble’s positioning services in the ag market.

Winnipeg-based JCA, which Agco bought last year, makes systems and software including the Vireo precision ag system, the Eagle autonomous equipment system and the Falcon and Oriole controller systems.

JCA also developed the control system supporting the Canadian-made DOT autonomous ag equipment platform, now owned by Agco’s OEM rival CNH Industrial.

Trimble and Agco said the new venture is meant to “better serve farmers with factory-fit and aftermarket applications in the mixed fleet precision agriculture market” and to be “a global leader in mixed-fleet smart farming and autonomy solutions.”

The deal “accelerates Agco’s growth ambitions around autonomy, precision spraying, connected farming, data management and sustainability,” Agco CEO Eric Hansotia said in a release.

It also “significantly enhances Agco’s technology stack with disruptive technologies that cover every aspect of the crop cycle, which ultimately helps us better serve farmers no matter what brand they use,” he said.

“We believe a joint venture with Agco, complemented by the successful mixed fleet approach that they have developed with their Precision Planting business model, can help us better serve farmers and OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) together,” Trimble CEO Rob Painter said.

From Trimble’s perspective, the deal streamlines its asset portfolio and allows it to increase its focus on “priority growth areas” — while reducing its direct exposure to the “hardware-centric” ag market but still maintaining its “ongoing participation in a leading precision ag asset.”

The “commercial synergies” the new joint venture will get from direct access to Agco’s OEM, aftermarket, other OEM and retrofit channels — along with “modest” run-rate cost synergies — are expected to roughly double the new venture’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by year five after the deal closes, Agco said.

GSI under review

In its release Thursday announcing the new joint venture, Agco also said it has placed its “grain and protein” business segment under “strategic review.”

That business segment includes Agco’s grain handling systems brand GSI, as well as grain processing equipment brand Cimbria and three livestock housing systems brands: Cumberland, AP and Tecno.

While Agco didn’t give any examples of the options it’s considering for those businesses, it said it will “assess all strategic options to ensure the Grain and Protein customers are serviced in the best way possible, and that the business is best positioned to maximize its full potential.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Washington, D.C.-based American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) on Monday announced it had reached memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with equipment firms Agco and Kubota on allowing the so-called “right to repair.”

The MOUs, reached separately with each company, follow similar pacts the AFBF made in January with Deere and Co. and in March with CNH, the maker of Case IH and New Holland equipment.

READ MORE: Deere agrees to independent equipment servicing

The agreements lay out a framework under which farmers and independent repair facilities in all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico would be able to access Agco and Kubota manuals, tools, product guides and information to self-diagnose and self-repair machines.

The pact also provides for support from the manufacturers to directly purchase or lease diagnostic tools and order products and parts. Farmers or independent repair shops would be able to obtain specialized tools, software or documentation from authorized repair shops on “fair and reasonable terms” via subscription or sale.

Barry O’Shea, vice-president for customer support at Agco — whose brands include Massey Ferguson, Fendt and Challenger — said in AFBF’s release that “Agco’s farmer-first focus guides us in everything we do, and we support farmers’ ability to repair the equipment they own.”

Todd Stucke, senior vice-president of marketing for Kubota, said in the same release that the company, through its dealer network, makes shop tools, parts, guides and manuals available to owners who choose to work directly on their machines.

“We strive to ensure that our equipment is manufactured to the highest engineering standards to maximize performance for our customers, and this agreement is a good step toward further protecting their safety while operating, maintaining and repairing it,” Stucke said.

The agreements emphasize that the manufacturer isn’t obliged to divulge any trade secrets, nor to allow farmers or independents to override equipment safety features or emissions controls, nor to sell tools, software or documents that either never existed or are no longer available to either the company or its authorized repair sites.

Taken together with the Deere and CNH MOUs, AFBF said the four agreements cover about 70 per cent of the farm machinery sold in the U.S.

“Farmers and ranchers urged us to find a private sector-solution to the challenges of repairing their own equipment,” AFBF president Zippy Duvall said in the same release. “These agreements represent ongoing efforts to ensure farmers have access to the tools necessary to keep their equipment running, and to keep food on the table for families across America.”

The MOUs with Agco and Kubota both took effect as of May 17. They also commit the companies and AFBF to meet at least semi-annually to assess how the MOUs are working and suggest changes as needed.

The MOUs also allow for the AFBF or either company to withdraw on delivery of written notice, but the parties agree to “co-operate in good faith” to schedule a meeting within 30 days of that notice to discuss the “ongoing viability” of the MOU.

The MOUs’ “intended beneficiaries” are farmers in the 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico; neither agreement mentions any commitment to provide the same services to farmers outside U.S. territory. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Toromont Industries announced Monday it will sell its AgWest Ltd. arm to Dutch equipment distributor Mechan International, effective May 1.

Neither company would disclose the financial terms of the deal Monday, except that it will be in cash and “is not expected to have a material impact on Toromont’s overall future operations, revenue or earnings.”

AgWest operates three dealerships and three parts-and-service satellite locations in the province, handling all Agco’s product lines including Fendt, Massey Ferguson, Challenger, Sunflower, White, Rogator, TerraGator and Wilmar. It also holds exclusive rights to distribute Claas combines in the entire province.

The AgWest network includes its head office location at Elie, about 30 km west of Winnipeg, plus its dealerships at Brandon and Neepawa and satellite locations at Swan River, Morden and Russell.

Mechan plans to continue to operate the business under the AgWest brand and retain the current management, staff and number of sites, Toromont said.

“Mechan’s global presence, deep agricultural knowledge, and solid distribution reputation offer a strategic fit with AgWest’s people, customers and suppliers,” Toromont said.

“Thanks to the dedicated AgWest team, loyal customers and strong supplier support, the AgWest business has improved consistently over the past few years,” Toromont CEO Scott Medhurst said in a release.

Concord, Ont.-based, publicly traded Toromont created AgWest in 2014, when it bought two Manitoba ag dealership chains and merged them under the one banner.

In its 2022 annual report, Toromont said AgWest “benefitted from a recovery in commodity prices and strong execution leading to higher market penetration and growth in combine and tractor market shares.

“Improved operational execution and added customer deliverables contributed to much improved overall performance,” the company said.

Mechan is an arm of Zweegers Equipment Group, a Dutch investment firm focused on equipment. Toromont noted Zweegers has a “long association with agricultural equipment including the distribution of Agco and Claas products worldwide.”

“This acquisition aligns with our aim to expand the geographical footprint and add new equipment brands,” Mechan board member Ronald Slaats said in that company’s release.

“For us, people, and local entrepreneurship are paramount, we share our ‘boots on the ground’ approach and deep-rooted passion for equipment, working towards a sustainable future. We are convinced that AgWest’s culture and working methods are in complete harmony with this,” Zweegers CEO Gerrit van der Scheer said in the same release.

Agco’s Americas vice-president for distribution, Bill Hurley, said in a separate release Monday that Mechan’s ownership of AgWest would bring “expanded capabilities, investment and international perspective to the table.”

Mechan’s resources, he said, offer “substantial growth opportunities for Agco products in Manitoba, especially for our Fendt brand as it continues its very successful expansion into the region.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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If hydrogen isn’t readily available, the engine can revert to running on good old-fashioned diesel. And the company says both fuels allow the engine to put out the same horsepower.

Volvo Penta expects to start small-scale production soon and have the dual-fuel engines in the hands of end-users in a pilot project slated for 2023.

Volvo Penta is far from the only manufacturer stepping into the alternative fuel arena. The long-talked-about use of hydrogen as an alternative to diesel has seen a significant increase in interest recently. That comes as public concern about reducing greenhouse gas emissions is accelerating. The general consensus among ag and heavy equipment engineers is battery electric drives in high-horsepower applications are not a feasible alternative to diesel engines — at least not if long operating hours are required. That’s helped push hydrogen to the forefront as a green fuel source with lots of potential.

Minimal engine change needed

New Holland has shown a strong interest in pursuing a path to low-carbon agriculture for some time. At Agritechnica several years ago, it was the first to show a concept hydrogen fuel cell tractor which converted hydrogen gas to electricity for an all-electric drivetrain. While many early hydrogen concepts focused on converting it to electricity, like the NH tractor, the dominant trend now is in making hydrogen a replacement fuel for the good old internal combustion engine. That allows for big emissions reductions without fundamentally changing the design.

NH’s partner organization under CNH ownership, FPT (Fiat Powertrain), claims to have already built 50,000 natural gas engines, giving the brand significant engineering experience with ICE engines in the alternative fuel field. But the NH brand has put its spin on the alternative fuels effort, last year releasing a T6 tractor designed to run on methane. NH has been testing bio-methane as a fuel for several years at its low-carbon demonstration farm in Italy.

NH claims that T6 tractor can reduce particulate emissions by 98 per cent and cut operating costs by 30 per cent.

“The T6.180 Methane Power is the result of New Holland’s pioneering work on the use of alternative fuels through our Clean Energy Leader strategy,” said Michael Cornman, livestock and dairy segment manager for New Holland Agriculture North America. “It is a significant step forward on the path to decarbonizing agriculture, and it is happening now, as the development of this sustainable tractor has reached its production phase. It is commercially available to our customers beginning this 2022 season.”

Although the T6 will be available here, it is likely to be a much better fit in Europe for the near term, where on-farm bio-methane is already being produced on several operations. Hydrogen may turn out to be a more popular alternative for North American farmers.

Cummins and AGCO

In late August, Cummins and Winnipeg-based Versatile announced they would be working jointly on development of a hydrogen-powered high-horsepower tractor powered by a 15-litre engine designed specifically for that fuel. A working prototype is expected to be ready for field testing by spring 2023.

“The high commonality among engine components between diesel and hydrogen leverages scale advantages for OEMs, while delivering the reliability that farmers need,” said Ann Schmelzer, general manager for Cummins’ global agriculture business.

“While diesel engines continue to be the flexible power of choice for the foreseeable future in agriculture, such a collaboration enables both companies to develop low- and zero-carbon solutions that are ideally suited to farming,” said Adam Reid, Versatile’s vice-president of sales and marketing.

With new announcements on the alternative fuel front coming pretty regularly now, the timeline of that foreseeable future Reid mentioned may be shrinking.

AGCO’s Power engine manufacturing arm, based in Finland, announced in October it is planning for an inevitable jump into alternative fuels in the ICE market with “a completely new engine family for off-road vehicles.” These new engines, called the CORE platform, can already run on 100 per cent renewable HVO fuels (Hydro-treated vegetable oil, which can be produced from various plant-based oils such as sunflower oil or even animal fats). But that isn’t much of a stretch from current engines. The big deal here is they provide a base engine that can be modified to run with a variety of other renewables, including hydrogen.

“Alternative fuels of the future such as hydrogen, ethanol, methanol, biogas as well as electric hybrid applications set new demands for an engine,” says AGCO Power CEO Juha Tervala. “The CORE engine platform is designed to enable the use of alternative fuels with further development.”

The first CORE engines will hit the market under the hoods of AGCO’s new Gen 7 Fendt 700 Series tractors. It delivers 1,070 foot-pounds of torque at just 1,300 rpm, which the brand claims helps give it the best fuel economy in its class. It can deliver up to 300 horsepower.

“Today, the primary challenge of product development is to get rid of the fossil carbon or at least to radically reduce it,” says AGCO Power’s director of engineering Kari Aaltonen.

Deere and Caterpillar

John Deere has said little about hydrogen so far as an alternative fuel source for its equipment. However, it has committed to delivering a battery/electric autonomous ag tractor to the market by 2026.

Over at Deere’s long-time rival, Caterpillar, that company claims to have a 35-year history in developing hydrogen-fuelled power units. It plans to continue to develop engines capable of running on that energy source. It’s where Cat sees demand growing in the future.

“Caterpillar continues to make investments aimed at improving the capability of hydrogen-powered solutions and replicating them across engine platforms as this fuel will likely play a role in customers’ plans for a reduced-carbon future,” a Cat statement reads.

In October 2021 Cat announced it will begin offering special order generator sets capable of running on 100 per cent hydrogen built to specifically suit certain customers. And it said it would also immediately make units available that can run on a 25 per cent blend of hydrogen along with natural gas.

Earlier in 2021, it announced a partnership with Calgary-based Certarus to work together to “explore opportunities to leverage each party’s strengths to bring lower-carbon energy solutions to their combined customer base.”

Said Joe Creed, Cat’s group president, energy and transportation of the aims of the partnership with Certarus: “We believe our teamwork will combine valuable expertise from our companies to deliver comprehensive customer solutions for the energy transition.”

Did you get the key words in that last sentence? “The energy transition.” It’s already begun.

In the end, though, the future of the hydrogen ICE may depend on the strength of proposed environmental regulations. Indications from European and Californian regulators suggest they may move to entirely ban internal combustion engines no matter what the fuel, to get to near zero greenhouse gas emission levels.

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But even within the world’s agriculture, it’s probable that no sector has been a target more often, or more stridently, than its dairy farms.

In Britain, a group called Animal Rebellion has been pouring milk onto the floors of supermarkets — as well as other unlawful acts — in publicized protests, with the stated aim of completely disrupting that country’s dairy supply.

Among that group’s demands are government support for a movement completely away from animal farming and commercial fishing to a totally plant-based system. (That said, there is some flexibility in their demands. One supporter told a local newspaper report he’d also allow a complete return to “wild nature.” )

How converting all existing pasture and forage lands to intensive cropping to allow for a completely plant-based diet would suddenly make agriculture more “natural” is testament to the absurdity of the movement. Nevertheless, the dairy sector has been identified as one of the biggest GHG (greenhouse gas) emitters in agriculture, and that has still other activist groups riled up and targeting farms and value chain businesses as well.

Here in Canada, the Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) has launched a public relations campaign in an apparent effort to avoid the kind of problems U.K. farmers and dairy processors are coping with. According to a study completed for the DFC, Canadian dairy operations contribute only half of the global average GHGs emitted by dairy farms around the world, and the group has committed to reaching net-zero emissions by the year 2050. 

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) confirms this low GHG emissions ranking and estimates the average carbon footprint for a litre of milk produced in Canada ranges from 0.93 kilogram of CO2 equivalents in the west to 1.12 kilograms in the east. Differing climates and the use of irrigation in some regions is the cause for the difference.

Just how significant is that one kilogram of CO2 equivalents? For reference, it’s roughly the equivalent carbon footprint of a two-minute hot shower.

Ag machinery brands have been keenly aware of how farming is perceived by the public, and many of them have been working to help train farmers in “sustainable” production methods. Hopefully, they can help stem the tide of activism against the industry. As brands push precision ag technology to western producers as an aid in that effort, AGCO has also had a relatively impressive record in providing small-holding farmers in developing nations with the skills to not only reduce their impact on the environment, but also to improve their standard of living at the same time.

According to the FAO, among those global regions with the highest carbon footprint in dairy production are Africa and Asia. GHG emissions in some of those regions can hit seven kilograms per litre. In October, AGCO’s Agriculture Foundation (AAF) made a $250,000 donation to Heifer Netherlands (a Dutch non-profit organization) “to improve the sustainability, productivity and resilience of smallholder dairy farming families through the development of a climate-smart and productive dairy model in Nepal.”

The AAF’s stated goal is to “fight hunger and promote sustainable climate solutions for farmers through sustainable, impact-driven agriculture projects.” Heifer Netherland’s grant application was chosen from hundreds of others, according to AGCO. As a result, the two have entered a two-year partnership to help Nepalese dairy producers improve their operations.

“Funded by the AAF, this project will help minimize existing GHG emissions from Nepalese smallholder dairy farming practices while improving productivity,” reads AGCO’s statement. “It will also help smallholder dairy producers, particularly women, focus on climate-smart solutions. The project approach will combine several sustainable farming methods. Producers will learn to develop climate-smart feed management and animal husbandry systems that reduce enteric fermentation, improve the productivity of animals and sequester carbon emissions through fodder trees and proper manure management with clean energy production using biogas and organic fertilizer.”

Roger Batkin, board chair at the AGCO Agriculture Foundation, added to that, saying, “Nepal remains one of the world’s least-developed nations. The majority of people live in rural areas. We want to prioritize actions for the direct benefit of these farmers’ livelihoods while supporting sustainable agricultural practices that maintain soil fertility, raise healthy livestock and improve the environment. Across food chains, from livestock to crop production, climate change continues to have a significant impact on food security and livelihoods of farmers and their communities.”

“This project will also contribute to the work of a large long-term program called ‘Milky Way Nepal’ that aims to transform the smallholder dairy sector into a fair, profitable and climate-smart value chain by 2030,” said Goossen Hoenders, executive director of Stichting Heifer Nederland. “The granted award is one of the first steps into realizing this ambitious program.”

Over the 24 months of the program, the effort is expected to have an impact on about 100 small dairy operations, affecting the lives of about 500 people in total. It is also expected to engage with a number of those in the dairy value chain, Nepalese academics and non-governmental organizations to drive sustainable development initiatives from the producer level right through to the final consumer.

Of course climate change-related production processes aren’t the only aspect of animal husbandry that fringe protest groups have targeted. Animal welfare activists, such as PETA, have taken action against beef and dairy operations in the past. And AGCO’s AAF has pushed for improvements in animal welfare, too.

Back in January of 2019, then AGCO CEO Martin Richenhagen spoke at the “Feeding the World — The Future of Protein” summit in Berlin, which his firm had organized.

“Whilst discussing protein production, a special emphasis should be placed on the future of the animal welfare. Meat and poultry producers, especially in emerging markets with a growing middle class, are in need of comprehensive solutions to improve agricultural supply chains,” Richenhagen told the audience back then. “Today, we have brought together industry specialists, politicians, scientists and animal welfare experts to discuss a number of pressing matters, including challenges to feed a rapidly growing world population, as well as solutions that not only boost overall performance and productivity of farms, but also offer innovative and sustainable ways to improve animal handling and the fair treatment of animals in our agricultural supply chains.”

As part of the ongoing efforts of that initiative, in 2020 the AAF launched an event in Zambia to teach small poultry growers better, more sustainable production methods.

“Our agricultural training facility will play a key role to facilitate knowledge and skills transfer for farmers on best livestock management practices required to boost productivity and income. We will work with our grain and protein business unit to support selected farmers on improved animal welfare and livestock management operations,” said Kalongo Chitengi, senior manager at the AGCO Future Farm.

That Future Farm in Zambia was another AGCO initiative created even earlier, in 2015. It was a pet project of Richenhagen and was created to help train African farmers in modern production methods and to give them access to farm equipment. And unlike previous efforts to introduce modern farming on the continent, including a well-known effort by the Canadian International Development Agency back a few decades ago, this one has been working well.

The success of that demonstration farm and other initiatives to improve the lives of farmers around the world could eventually benefit the brand in giving it an early start in future machinery markets where currently none exists. But right now, those efforts are truly providing a worthy humanitarian service. 

The world could use a lot more of such corporate responsibility. It’s an effort that will require every stakeholder in agriculture to pitch in, including the machinery sector.

As Charlie McConalogue, Irish minister of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in Donegal, Ireland is reported to have told a rural youth organization during a speech, “We can’t just say we’re sustainable.” The agriculture sector will eventually have to prove it.

The post The right side appeared first on Country Guide.

That was a track with concrete ridges designed to severely shake a machine as it drove over them. It could simulate years of real world experience in a week or two of 24-hour-a-day torture on the track. Unfortunately, it amounted to torture for the drivers as well.

That’s a pretty common testing procedure, and I’ve seen machines making the rounds on bump tracks in various test centres over the years. Driving around them for hours on end isn’t a job I’d be interested in. Fortunately, similar tests these days don’t actually require a driver.

One of the examples of a driverless bump track is in use at the DLG testing facility in Gross Umstadt, Germany. A rotating arm pulls a tractor around a circular track that resembles an exercise rack you might see at a horserace track. Staff can set the speed and duration of the test and control it remotely.

An even more modern version of the bump track is common in engineering centres such as CNH’s Burr Ridge facility in Illinois.

There, the tractor or other machine remains stationary with all four wheels securely positioned on top of fast-acting hydraulic rams that jostle it based on a computer program. When I went first toured the centre, CNH’s tests began with a real tractor travelling over a rough road at high speed with accelerometers recording the G forces. Those readings were then loaded into a program that used the rams to recreate the road inside the test chamber.

As I watched the test, I was asked not to photograph it because the test tractor was subjected to a merciless pounding. (Actually, it looked relatively unscathed at the end of the beating.)

Today the “jounce test” at AGCO’s assembly plant in Jackson, Minnesota, is far less severe and used as a quality control test instead, looking for potential assembly line faults such as poorly connected electrical fittings that might eventually bounce loose. That allows the defects to be corrected before the tractor gets shipped out to a customer.

Next door to the jounce test is a dyno room, where even belted tractors can get put through a series of gear changes and other driveline tests while under load. Again, this is meant as a non-destructive quality control test looking for assembly defects.

At the heart of these newer testing systems is, of course, computer control, something my retired Massey engineer friend couldn’t even have dreamt about during his work in the 1960s.

Then, earlier this year, CNH announced it has upped its game for testing new designs. There’s more to consider now than just the sore backs of test drivers. Test systems need to be safer too, and more environmentally friendly since all brands are under pressure to reduce their carbon footprints.

“Test-driving agricultural equipment must be conducted according to the most stringent safety conditions and in controlled scenarios,” says the company’s announcement. “Manoeuvering a 25-ton combine harvester across an uneven field can be a tricky business, so the greatest precautions and considerations must be made. CNH Industrial’s development of virtual testing is transforming that risk profile, as well as reducing the time, costs and carbon emissions involved.”

Another testing consideration is that the old school tests aren’t good enough these days. Today’s science has superseded it. Engineers now have practically unlimited data on soils and on field conditions and can predict the full range of stresses their machines will face.

And that can save a company a lot of dollars. No longer do they have to actually go through the expense of building a prototype to see how much abuse it can take before it breaks.

By testing in a virtual environment, CNH Industrial says it is speeding up the design process for full autonomy while minimizing occupational safety concerns.”

(Editorial note: Did anyone else notice the mention of testing for “full autonomy”?)

“One area where virtual testing is particularly effective is in cab design, where driver comfort and safety are assessed,” CNH adds. “By using virtual cabs, teams can closely monitor factors such as driver comfort and the reachability of controls. Whereas traditionally, a person would have had to physically sit in the cab for ergonomic testing — possibly in some potential discomfort — the virtual system can assess all the design factors.”

Virtual testing also allows customers to provide input and feedback into the design process, the company says. “Using virtual cabs, they can view solutions, track design development, and see improvements to product design first-hand interface and advanced sensing technology that allow the vehicles to locate themselves and avoid hazards. However, the next step forward is already with us: supervised autonomy, where the operator oversees an unmanned vehicle. Ultimately, CNH Industrial will deliver full autonomy, where farming machinery will be able to carry out a wide range of tasks under fully remote supervision.”

Virtual tests can be designed to focus on any number of aspects, including safety as engineers refine the design through the development process.

“Normally, the product development team would run a series of ‘bump tests’ for farming equipment, which monitors vibrations, analyzes the forces on specific elements of a design, and checks the pressures on hydraulic components,” the CNH explanation continues. “But now, by combining a variety of modelling techniques with physical components, CNH Industrial has created a simulation environment that mirrors standard testing, creating a ‘digital twin’. By shifting to this virtual setting, design validation becomes far safer.”

In order to compete in a wide range of global markets, traditional testing requires farm equipment to be evaluated in different environments and crops. Virtual testing speeds that process up too.

Not surprisingly, any process that gets a machine from concept through development and into commercial sales faster can save companies a pile of cash. By running a virtual test, evaluations are effectively immediate. And CNH notes it is also possible to learn more about the machine’s operation than during standard physical testing.

Not only that, but the computers can “see” every phase of the operation as well, such as the insides of a combine rotor that is full of crop.

“With these simulations we can analyze the dynamics of all the systems inside the machine,” CNH says. “The company’s ability to monitor the exact crop flow at every point inside a virtual machine makes testing more accurate and allows for further enhancements.”

And then there’s that environmental angle. Testing vehicles in the traditional manner involves significant carbon emissions — and waste. Running virtual simulation substantially reduces those concerns.

“When building a prototype, you know it is ultimately destined for the landfill,” says Gennaro Monacelli, CNH Industrial’s global director of design analysis and simulation. “It’s a significant investment and thanks to virtual testing, we don’t always need to develop one, as simulations become more realistic and predictive.”

Besides, there are whole new systems that need testing under every kind of condition, including cameras and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), in everything from clear sunny days to rain storms. The old bump track doesn’t offer much help there.

“On larger farms, vehicles will soon be able to communicate with each other,” says Monacelli. “In the future, we will be able to tell farmers the optimum time to harvest a crop, and the combine will harvest with fully remote supervision.”

The post Virtual testing for real world conditions appeared first on Country Guide.

It’s part of what seems a new reality for farmers everywhere. Environmental regulations like those pending in the EU are likely to be imposed sooner rather than later in most developed countries, regardless of the objections of producers. And meeting them may require producers to rethink many production methods.

Coincidently, only a few days before the Dutch farmer uprising began in earnest, the topic of enhancing modern production methods to meet climate change initiatives was discussed at AGCO’s timely “Sustainable Technology Event” in Germany.

“The Green Deal really sets the stage for Europe to be the first climate-neutral continent by 2050,” said Louisa Parker-Smith, director of global sustainability at AGCO, during that event, which was held at its Fendt assembly plant in Marktoberdorf, Germany. Not only has the EU set out interim targets to reduce greenhouse emissions by 55 per cent by 2030, she noted, it has also made the targets legally binding through the European climate law.

At that Sustainable Technology Event, AGCO executives laid out how it sees the technologies their brand is currently offering — and those it expects to develop in the future — are what farmers will need to not only meet ambitious environmental goals, but also bump up their bottom line profits by as much as 20 per cent in the process.

[VIDEO] AgDealerTV: AGCO and precision ag

And to prove it, AGCO took event attendees out to a privately owned German farm near the Fendt plant to highlight an example of how one farmer, using those AGCO systems, is already doing exactly that.

Depending on the individual farm, of course, some of the efficiency gains and GHG emissions reductions may not be that technically difficult to achieve.

“In Europe, 70 per cent of the fertilizer is applied with a spin spreader today,” said Seth Crawford, AGCO’s senior VP and GM of precision AG and digital. “So the precision isn’t all that great. The reality is when you grow a crop, the crop can’t always reach out and grab those nutrients. If you get a heavy rain, some of it will wash away, creating environmental concerns.”

For many EU farmers, adopting new production methods seems unavoidable.

“They (EU regulations) include several targets which impact farmers directly,” said Parker-Smith. The regs will reduce pesticide use by 50 per cent and fertilizer by 20 per cent, and also increase the amount of land under organic production.

Back in this country, Canadian farmers are likely to see similar pressures. The federal government is already targeting a 30 per cent reduction in nitrous oxide emissions from nitrogen fertilizer use by 2030.

[RELATED] Precision ag needs and wants

Data from Agriculture Canada shows that greenhouse gas emissions from Canadian agriculture have remained relatively stable from 1981 through 2016, but much of that is due to the increased ability of Prairie soils to act as a carbon sink, offsetting nitrous oxide emissions from increased nitrogen fertilizer use. Canadian agriculture has even shown a slight improvement in the Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Index, dropping from a score of 78 in 1981 to 74 in 2016. That puts us in the “Good” range. 

But there is still room for improvement, and broader use of precision agriculture technology seems the most probable way to achieve the most significant gains here too.

“The full suite of precision technologies are vital now more than ever in moving forward with sustainable food systems and achieving the climate targets,” said Parker-Smith.

AGCO’s Crawford said his company’s strategy to achieve the widest adoption of those precision methods in the shortest time is through retro-fit systems. AGCO plans to continue to develop add-on systems that offer increased precision on existing machines across all brands. Executives recognize not all farmers can afford to go out and spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment that incorporates the latest in technology.

Getting retrofittable precision into the hands of smaller producers and those who currently use less efficient equipment stands to make the largest impact and would go a long way toward achieving overall emissions targets for the entire sector.

“We’re the only OEM that focuses on retrofit first,” Crawford told the audience. “And the reasons are simple … we believe it helps us to do this. We believe we can get to market faster.

“When you look at the number of farmers that buy new equipment every year it’s around seven percent. But 100 per cent will want to enhance their operation. And there’s no doubt 100 per cent of those farmers are going to be under the umbrella of the Green New Deal or other regulations somewhere else in the world. They’re going to need to make investments to keep up. But not all of them are going to want to sink $500,000 into updating their fleet. Some are going to have $20,000 or $30,000, and they’re going to want products to buy.

“We want dealers to engage with those buyers. We believe that helps us to grow. We think the race is definitely on in the precision ag space.”

As AGCO sees it, pushing precision technology is a win-win all around. Chasing increasing precision is not only good for the planet and farmers, it’s good for the corporate bottom line too.

“The precision ag business overall, depending on which report you read, is growing somewhere between 10 and 15 per cent (annually),” Crawford said. “Over the last five years we’ve exceeded that every single year. And we’re going to see more growth.”

With the audience at the Sustainable Technology Event made up primarily of investment brokers and financial analysts, that kind of message was one the company wanted to emphasize.

Crawford also addressed — in contrast to Deere — the lack of a fully autonomous tractor making up part of AGCO’s current product offering. The company does have one in the final stages of development, he said, but it wasn’t going to offer it just yet. 

Most importantly, even without a fully autonomous product in AGCO dealerships, the new technologies that company has developed and is continuing to work on are driving profits at the company, because it could offer them as individual features on existing new machines or upgrades for older models. 

Still, full autonomy isn’t far away, Crawford said. “It wasn’t too long ago we thought this (autonomy) was going to stretch out into the 2030s. The reality is it’s coming sooner. That’s why we’re working so hard automating each of the tasks along the way, and bringing our autonomous tractor as well.”

“Our strategy is primarily on automating features first,” added Eric Hansotia, AGCO CEO, during a Q&A session at the end of the presentations.

“We can get paid for every one of those. We can add value today. We felt there wasn’t a value-add to put that (autonomous tractor) into the market until it can do all those things the operator does in the cab rather than a single task. We’re automating all those things, and later on we’ll decide when the time is right to pull the operator out.”

It’s no surprise, then, that in the last few years AGCO has made R&D in precision agriculture systems a top priority within the company.

“We feed the R&D rate in the precision business at a much higher rate than the equipment business,” said Crawford. “To compete in precision ag, we have to.”

While the company used to rely on technology developed by corporate partners, AGCO has moved to bring that R&D in-house. It has ramped up its own efforts and purchased technology companies it once partnered with, such as Winnipeg-based JCA Industries.

AGCO sees technology development and its retro-fit marketing strategy as one of the largest drivers of corporate profit. And it could be critical in meeting the future needs of its customers, too, especially as the spectre of new regulations drive demand for even better precision technologies.

“How big is the retrofit market?” Crawford asked.

“My answer to that is there’s only a cap if we stop innovating … I don’t think we’re going to see the regulations slow down anytime soon.”

The post The race toward precision agriculture appeared first on Country Guide.

This will almost certainly result in a continually growing percentage of visible minorities among Canada’s working age people over the next decade, similar to the trendlines in other western nations.

If you walk the grounds at a farm show, though, that diversity isn’t really very obvious. Nor is it something I’ve seen when meeting with marketing staff at any of the farm equipment brands — whether major or minor — on any continent.

But while visible minorities may not yet account for many of those brand staffers, I have noticed one significant demographic change over the years. Women are increasingly making up part of their executive teams.

That hasn’t occurred by accident. All the major brands are deliberately moving to increase diversity across their workforces, and getting women into leadership roles is one key target all have focused on. An excerpt from CNH Industrial’s report A Sustainable Year makes that pretty clear.

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“To establish a diverse, inclusive and attractive workplace well into the future,” it reads, “the company is carrying out initiatives that ensure women and minorities are represented in our talent pipeline, as well as increasing the number of women in leadership positions across the organization … The company is also creating region-specific initiatives that advance our (diversity and inclusion) efforts.”

Among those region-specific initiatives, the company’s Brazil operation has launched an effort to help lift women out of poverty by providing them with specific skills training that would allow them to fill positions at the assembly plant near Sao Paulo. The courses are held in the evenings to allow stay-at-home mothers to attend. The company also provides assistance such as transportation, meals and workwear for them. The aim is to help establish a skilled workforce that could raise the participation rate for women at the facility well above its current 15 per cent.

When it comes to broader goals, CNH has set itself a target of having at least 20 per cent of its leadership roles occupied by women as early as 2024.

Despite being well qualified for many corporate positions, especially highly technical ones such as engineers, AGCO’s Fendt brand has recognized that many women feel insecure in occupying positions in the traditionally male-dominated STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). To help prepare young women to deal with that insecurity, commonly called “imposter syndrome,” the company addressed it at a Female Career Day held at the Fendt facility in Germany in June. Ivory Harris, senior vice-president and chief human resources officer at AGCO, gave a speech on the topic. 

“Unfortunately, women are particularly likely to experience feelings of not deserving their success,” Harris said. “Self-doubt makes it difficult to recognize and appreciate their own accomplishments. The phenomenon of women feeling imposter syndrome more often than men can be exacerbated by women in first-time roles held by women, in what has been a traditionally male-dominated work environment, such as the STEM field. I’m passionate about empowering women at AGCO and encouraging talented female students, especially from the fields of math, computer science, science and technology.”

“The agricultural industry is changing,” adds Ingrid Bussjaeger-Martin, managing director for finance and IT at Fendt. “That makes the work very exciting. Producing food sustainably and innovatively for a growing world population presents us as agricultural machinery manufacturers with new challenges that we can only master together. I am delighted that so many young women are taking part in our Fendt Female Career Day today for the third time and are interested in a career in agricultural technology.”

That third seminar accommodated 50 young women looking to make a career in an agriculture-related field.

Over at John Deere, one woman is leading a unique effort to increase diversity in its workforce and she is doing it in a non-traditional location: urban Chicago. Brand ambassador for the company, Johanna Acevedo, spends much of her time in the former meat-packing district turned urban hub of Chicago, where farming isn’t likely top of mind for residents. She’s introducing skilled potential hires to an ag equipment industry they had no idea needed tech-savvy talent. In fact, Acevedo didn’t know that much about the company herself until she started working for Deere.

“When you live in a bigger city and there are no farms around you, John Deere is not one of the first companies that comes to mind,” she says. “And while I knew of John Deere, I definitely didn’t know John Deere was an opportunity for me to come and be in IT (information technology).”

As group engineering manager in Chicago where Deere is in the process of expanding its IT and technology footprint, first to 150 and ultimately to 300 people, Acevedo is the onsite leader responsible for “culture, hiring strategy and community outreach.” The brand’s office there is located in the same neighbourhood as Google and Facebook, which says a lot about the advanced state of modern ag equipment manufacturing today.

“A lot of people know John Deere for being a hard-iron manufacturing company,” Acevedo says. “So, I have this amazing opportunity to tell them that we also have an autonomous tractor, that we’ve had self-driving vehicles for 20 years, that we have one of the most accurate GPS systems on the market, and that we have the See and Spray Ultimate technology which uses really cool AI (artificial intelligence).”

Acevedo’s goal is to spread the message that the brand is determined to establish a culturally diverse workforce. And she’s working to make that happen sooner rather than later.

“Perhaps as a result of its presence in rural areas (which sometimes lack racial diversity), people of colour don’t always realize that John Deere is really interested in having diverse and inclusive teams,” Acevedo says. “I think (Deere’s new locations in) Chicago and Austin in particular are really great opportunities for us to show people of colour that we’re in this arena not just to play in the tech space, but because we want your diverse talent at our company. We want you to think of John Deere as an employer of choice.”

If finding and hiring a diverse group of employees is a challenge, however, so is retaining them after they’re on payroll.

“As a company and organization, we did a good job of bringing in diverse talent, but we weren’t always connecting and creating the environment and the culture where people felt comfortable staying,” says Leslee Hager, vice-president of internal audit at Deere.

But one of the company’s other departments has distinguished itself in leading the way in that effort. Deere’s accounting and finance arm had earned a reputation for being inclusive and diverse, and during a late 2020 roundtable discussion, Hager recalled a tipping point that motivated the team to raise the bar even higher.

“We were told, ‘No, this is not enough,’” she said. “One of the leaders said, ‘We need to take big action and we need to make sure all our leaders are engaged.’”

“Work streams” were created that focused on career development, diversity in leadership, recruiting and early career, culture and engagement, inclusivity conversations, and — linking them all — communication. Each work stream has “employee champions” who hold regular meetings and facilitate subgroups that meet more frequently to keep interaction topical, educational and engaging. Monthly meetings now typically include more than 500 employee participants.

There has been noticeable progress as a result. Three years ago, Deere found its percentage of women in middle-to-upper-level accounting and finance roles lagged behind its progress in lower-level positions. Now the percentage of mid-career roles held by women in Deere’s finance offices in the U.S. is increasing, and other departments are adopting the program in hopes of duplicating its success.

The job is to add diversity to the workforce and strengthen it as a cohesive, effective group, and Deere has learned this involves more than just going out and finding qualified women and people from ethnically diverse backgrounds. It means changing attitudes and biases among existing groups to create a welcoming atmosphere.

Deere’s Amy Wilson and Nicole Shearer co-operate on a “Perspectives” blog, which began as a look at being a woman at Deere and immediately earned a following. It has since grown in inclusion, encompassing everything from gender, religion, culture, race and dual-career dynamics. Since its February 2021 launch, the blog has generated and gathered dozens of submissions and posts. Many of the real-life stories share career issues and personal encounters.

“In almost every blog post we tried to include an action item because that’s ultimately the point,” says Shearer, manager of cash management. “We’re hoping that we can be a voice that encourages people to really think about something from a different perspective and then hopefully have the conversations, raise awareness, and, if it all goes well, change behaviours.”

The post The diversity gap appeared first on Country Guide.