Reading Time: 3 minutes The regional Manitoba Ag Days indoor farm machinery show in Brandon takes place every January, but isn’t exactly known as the kind of event where major manufacturers debut new machines — with one notable exception. Versatile, whose manufacturing plant is just two hours down the highway, has embraced the event as a place to show […] Read more
Versatile debuts new machinery for 2018
Winnipeg-based manufacturer shows new combine, anniversary tractor
Dawn of the ‘smart’ combine
Automated and self-adjusting threshing systems become the norm
Reading Time: 3 minutes Combine manufacturers have made giant strides toward machine automation. Yes, there still needs to be an operator in the cab (and we’re likely some distance away from changing that), but a growing number of today’s combines are making their own decisions about how to adjust their operations on the go for maximum threshing efficiency and […] Read more
Should you buy a combine, or stay with custom?
The decision depends on how much you lose to spoilage, so you need to think like a grocery store produce manager
Reading Time: 8 minutes Sue and Jim have increased their grain and oilseed operation to 4,500 acres. Until now they’ve hired a custom combine operator, but he’s retiring. Originally they had hired him as a means of economizing investment, but now they are more financially secure. They already have swathing and hauling equipment, and wonder if they should buy […] Read more
Seven new product reveals from John Deere
In early June John Deere invited members of the farm media to its Harvester Works facility in Moline, Illinois, to see the full line of equipment it was introducing in 2017. And all of it was parked on the lawn in front of that combine manufacturing facility for reporters to photograph and learn about from[...]
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Six numbers in agriculture to make you stop and think
It isn’t as quiet as you might think on the home front. Yes, today’s farms seem stable, but the next evolutionary wave is gaining energy
In 2009, total Canadian net farm income was $2.8 billion. Four years later, it was $10 billion more, with Statistics Canada’s saying a $5.6-billion rise in the total value of farm-owned inventories from the year before accounted for almost all of the increase in total net income in 2013 That inventory increase came from a[...]
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The quality revolution in agricultural machinery
Business has changed. You can’t build a tractor the way they used to. Farmers won’t let you
Reading Time: 6 minutes At first, we all thought he must have been exaggerating. It was 2013 and we were at the Hesston, Kansas combine assembly plant where Hans-Bernd Veltmaat, AGCO’s senior vice-president was discussing the plant’s US$40-million expansion, which included a new state-of-the-art paint system. “This paint centre is a major building block for AGCO,” Veltmaat said. “With[...]
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The right amount of harvest loss
Here’s how to find that optimum balance between harvest efficiency and lower field losses
Reading Time: 6 minutes Combines can easily throw more than a couple of bushels per acre of canola without drawing any notice from the operator. Yet that hidden loss can add up. Two bushels per acre tossed with the chaff amounts to $3,200 per 160 acres (based on the round number of $10 per bushel of canola) and it[...]
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Six numbers in agriculture to make you stop and think
It isn’t as quiet as you might think on the home front. Yes, today’s farms seem stable, but the next evolutionary wave is gaining energy
Reading Time: 6 minutes The spring rush is over, so now is the time to take a moment and reflect. As you gaze across fields flush with new growth, think about how much things have evolved in the last few years. Although that lone tree out there still leans to the east, and the sun still sets in the[...]
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The mechanics of straight cutting canola
It’s a question more canola growers ask with every harvest. Do I go straight cut or swath?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Frankly, it’s not always easy to make harvest decisions because a lot can depend on variables beyond a grower’s control. But of the factors that a grower can control, the research until now has been weighted fairly heavily toward the crop itself — varietal suitability, optimal harvest timing and so on. What about harvest equipment?[...]
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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[...]
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A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
