Several media outlets on Monday quoted organizers of the blockade at the Canada-U.S. border crossing at Coutts, Alta. as saying they would leave the area Tuesday morning.

Protestors in vehicles including commercial trucks, pickups and farm tractors formed a blockade halting traffic through the Coutts crossing, southeast of Lethbridge, and its sister crossing at Sweetgrass, Mont. starting Jan. 29. Single lanes of traffic later reopened but were blocked again Friday.

That blockade was formed in tandem with a demonstration still underway in Ottawa concerning current COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers, among a number of grievances related to pandemic-related public health policy and federal politics generally.

The Ottawa protest and Coutts blockade — along with several other blockades formed at major Canada-U.S. crossings across the country, including at Windsor, Ont. and Emerson, Man. — on Monday became the subject of the federal government’s declaration of a “public order emergency” under the Emergencies Act.

According to the government’s release Monday, the declaration allows it to regulate and prohibit “public assemblies, including blockades, other than lawful advocacy, protest or dissent” and to designate and secure places where “blockades are to be prohibited” such as at international borders or approaches to same. It also blocks foreign nationals from entering Canada with “intent to participate in or facilitate a prohibited assembly.”

The declaration is effective for up to 30 days and subject to confirmation from both houses of Parliament.

The protestors’ stated plan to leave Coutts also comes amid damaging reports of violence at the blockade, plus 13 arrests Monday among those attending.

Specifically, Alberta RCMP said Monday, “a large farm tractor and a semi truck, both involved in the blockade, attempted to ram a police vehicle” on Sunday evening.

The RCMP member involved “was able to reposition and avoid the collision” and both the tractor and semi truck alleged to be involved in that incident have since been seized.

On Monday afternoon, RCMP said, a northbound semi approached the Mounties’ checkstop north of nearby Milk River when “the driver accelerated and drove towards our members.” The driver of that vehicle “swerved at the last moment” and was later arrested nearby “for Criminal Code offences.”

Also on Monday, RCMP said they “became aware of a small organized group within the larger Coutts protest” and had received information “that this group had access to a cache of firearms with a large quantity of ammunition… (and) a willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade.”

RCMP on Monday morning carried out a search warrant on “three trailers associated to this criminal organization” and seized handguns, 13 long guns, a “large quantity of ammunition,” high-capacity magazines, “multiple sets” of body armour and a machete.

Eleven people were arrested at that time, RCMP said; another person was arrested later Monday after being stopped by police on the highway en route to the protest site, at which time “two weapons were seized.”

RCMP said Monday they would “resume efforts to end the illegal blockade” at Coutts and “encourage all participants who are involved in this illegal action to leave immediately or relocate to the designated site for the legal protest.”

“Our objective was to be here peacefully,” Marco Van Huigenbos, a protest organizer at Coutts, was quoted by CBC as saying later Monday. “To keep that message going, we want to peacefully leave Coutts and return to our families.”

‘Serious risks’

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, writing Monday on Twitter, made note of the arrests of people “believed to be involved in a potentially violent cell at the Coutts blockade” and hailed the “tactical operation that neutralized this potentially violent threat without incident.”

Also, Kenney wrote Monday, in spite of “threats and intimidation directed at tow truck operators and dealers, (the province) has successfully procured and staged the heavy equipment needed to remove commercial vehicles” at the protest site.

Kenney reiterated to remaining protestors that “it’s time to go home” and that their “continued violation of the rights of your fellow Albertans will not be tolerated.”

Separately, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in a statement Monday that she met with “meat industry representatives from across Canada” to talk about the blockades’ impact on “the transportation of live animals and beef exports, the movement of feed for livestock and the overall food supply for Canadians.”

The industry reps on the call “told me that the blockade is having a significant impact on the livelihood of Canadian farm families and businesses who cannot sustain any more delays,” she said, and that “shipments of animals are being delayed and cancelled, which is creating serious risks to animal welfare.”

Allowing animals, feed and feed ingredients to again flow across the border “is essential to support producers and protect the welfare of animals travelling between Canada and the U.S.,” she said, noting border transit delays “also heighten the risk of spoilage of perishable goods” such as fruit and vegetables.

With the public order emergency now declared, she said, cabinet officials “are monitoring the situation closely and working with our federal and provincial partners to identify and mitigate disruptions.”

In a joint statement last week, several national- and provincial-level transport, trade, manufacturing and distributing groups warned that “hundreds of millions of dollars in cross-border trade” including perishables and other goods, “are being impacted or lost because of ongoing blockades.”

Farmer and food processor groups including the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, National Cattle Feeders’ Association, Canadian Pork Council, Canadian Meat Council, Canadian Produce Marketing Association and Canadian Horticultural Council made a separate joint statement Friday calling for “immediate action by all parties to fully reopen Canada’s trade corridors.”

Canadian federal rules for cross-border travel by truckers and other essential workers were updated effective Jan. 15. Those rules currently require any Canadian truckers and other essential workers who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 and returning to Canada to follow the same quarantine protocols as other unvaccinated Canadians returning to Canada. Unvaccinated foreign truckers attempting to enter Canada are to be turned away.

The U.S. government has had the same rules in place for foreign unvaccinated truckers since Jan. 22 — with the effect of prohibiting unvaccinated Canadian truckers from bringing freight into the United States. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Alberta border blockade expected to disperse Tuesday appeared first on Country Guide.

The new program, dubbed ‘Claas Used,’ will offer warranty protection on certified late-model units in Canada and the U.S., along with lower-rate financing through Claas Financial Services.

The Claas Used program replaces the ‘First Claas Used’ program set up in 2018, which in turn was billed as the “next generation” plan following the Lexion Field Ready Reconditioned program set up in 2011.

The new program also scraps the First Claas Used system of gold-, silver- and bronze-level classifications on used Claas equipment in favour of a new certified pre-owned (CPO) standard.

The ‘Claas Used’ plan comes as “supply chain disruptions and financial constraints have affected many growers across North America,” the company said Tuesday.

“By combining the superior power and efficiency of Claas machines at a pre-owned price with a one-year protection plan and excellent low-rate financing, growers who take advantage of the Claas certified pre-owned program can have the best of both worlds,” Allen Miller, the company’s remarketing manager for North America, said in Tuesday’s release.

The company will also offer “flexible” protection plans for CPO combines, forage harvesters and tractors under the Claas Used program.

All certified machines to be sold under the program will have been “inspected, repaired and approved based on rigorous criteria by Claas certified technicians,” the company said.

The one-year plan will also provide repairs, done with Claas parts, plus standard one-year drive-train protection with an option to upgrade to a “comprehensive” protection plan.

The level-up plan, dubbed Maxi Care Comprehensive Extended Protection, will be “an optional layer of coverage” for Claas CPO machines meeting the “strictest inspection standards.”

On eligible combines and forage harvesters, the standard one-year plan will provide protection for either a year or 500 hours of use, whichever comes first, with a $500 deductible.

On tractors, the coverage will be for either a year or 1,000 hours of use, whichever comes first, with a $500 deductible — or $250 under the Maxi Care plan.

Eligible CPO combines and forage harvesters must have fewer than 2,500 hours use and be no older than five years of age by machine model year. Eligible tractors must also be no older than five years, with less than 5,000 hours’ use.

Equipment certified under the Claas Used program will be available through the company’s used equipment website. As of Tuesday afternoon, in the CPO category, just three self-propelled forage harvesters are listed for sale on that site, all in the U.S.

For the Canadian market, the company said it will offer a low financing rate on CPO Lexion combines and Jaguar forage harvesters, at zero per cent for the first 24 months up to a maximum financed amount of $450,000. That offer expires Dec. 31 this year.

Claas bills itself as an early adopter of the CPO system for sales of pre-owned equipment, which has given major manufacturers the opportunity to boost their brands’ sales beyond the showroom floor.

John Deere and Agco rolled out CPO programs for their late-model equipment in North America starting in 2014, followed in 2015 by Case IH and New Holland. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Versatile has long been thought of as a producer of high-horsepower tractors. Historically, though, it has had a presence in a lower horsepower class with production of what was initially the model 150, that evolved into the 256, and later the 9030, a unique articulated tractor that landed in the utility and mid-range segments.

Earlier this spring, Versatile announced that the new tractor line it’s been working on is designed to give the company a place in those horsepower classes again.

Known as Nemesis, the new line will give the brand a presence in the 175- to 210-horsepower range.

But while the introduction of the Nemesis tractors signals that Versatile wants to have a larger footprint in the overall tractor market, which is news in itself, another important and arguably surprising part of this story is that these models are expected to also be available from your local Kubota dealer — wearing Kubota orange paint and name badges.

The news release from Versatile officially announcing the introduction of the Nemesis line came at exactly the same moment Kubota announced it was partnering with Versatile to offer its customers a new line of tractors that picks up where the current M7-2 line leaves off, which is at 170 horsepower. So Versatile’s Nemesis line seems to fit Kubota perfectly.

However, Kubota’s press release was intentionally light on specifics, according to Yannick Montagano, Kubota’s vice-president of sales and marketing. The orange brand is holding any announcement of specifications back until it has an official product launch sometime in the second half of this year.

While the seemingly inescapable conclusion is that Versatile’s Nemesis tractors will be the basis of the new Kubota models, that remains only an assumption everyone in the industry is making, according to Adam Reid, Versatile’s vice-president of sales and marketing, because while both brands have acknowledged the joint OEM agreement, neither will yet officially give any exact specs on the Kubotas. So, we’ll still have to wait for Kubota to officially confirm or deny that later this year. All we know for sure now is the Kubota tractors will be built in Winnipeg by Versatile.

This is not the first time the Winnipeg plant has had an OEM agreement to build tractors for other brands, however. More than a few Challenger tracked tractors rolled off the assembly line there over the years.

When it comes to the tractors that will wear Versatile colours, we now know the Nemesis line will have Cummins Stage V compliant QSB 6.7L diesels under the hood. And they’ll be connected to a German-built ZF powershift transmission. Versatile has been powering its tractors with Cummins diesels for about five decades, so that isn’t a surprise.

When they begin arriving on dealers’ lots later this summer, the three Nemesis tractor models will be available with horsepower ratings that include 175, 195, and 210.

Versatile adds that it plans to eventually expand the Nemesis line — at least those wearing its own name badges — to 250 horsepower, and that the bigger models will also use ZF’s transmission. Eventually CVT models will be available in the Nemesis line, too.

The Nemesis tractors will be available with a front-end loader that features a quick-detach system and is controlled by an electric joystick. When in use, the front-end loader functions are displayed on a 10-inch monitor.

The new styling of the Nemesis tractors, including the cab interior layout, will set the trend for other Versatile tractor models and equipment when they see updates in the future.

And it will all come together very soon. Nemesis tractor production is underway now.

The post One line, two brands? appeared first on Country Guide.

The similarity is no coincidence.

When Bill Weber, Case IH high horsepower marketing manager, spoke to a group of journalists recently on the grounds of the University of Arizona’s Maricopa farm research facility, he gave writers a preview of the new tractors.

“The reason it looks like that is because this is the next generation going toward autonomy,” Weber said. “It can communicate, connected… you can control it throughout the field.”

Hence the name: AFS Connect Magnum.

AFS Connect, of course, is the brand’s telematics offering that has been around for a while, but its features have been amped up and the new Magnums named for it are now more connected than ever.

The updated Magnums will hit the market for the 2020 model year, and digital technology is where they make their biggest leap forward. The new Pro 1200 monitor in the cab greatly expands on the functions of the previous Pro 700. In fact, most of the tractor systems can be controlled through it, and it makes guidance much simpler, and it has a host of other functions too.

To avoid shocking previous Magnum owners who are used to the previous control layout, the new AFS Connect versions will have two or three ways to activate most tractor systems. Those who are familiar with manual controls on the armrest will still find them there, although some will be in different locations.

“(There is) freedom to customize controls,” Weber said. “We have maintained the old and jumped to the new. You can run this tractor old school or new school, meaning all the buttons and switches of the old model are still in the tractor, or everything can be controlled on the Pro 1200.”

The software that runs the Pro 1200 is based on the same Android technology most producers are familiar with in their mobile devices. That familiarity was behind the decision to go Android.

“Vision Pro utilizes an Android-based operating system in order to control this tractor,” said Weber. “The global market share for Android is 88 per cent as of last spring. So the reason we ran Android is because of the similarity with hand-held devices. So it’s easy for our customers to get onto the technology and use it.”

When it comes to connectivity, the Android-based system allows farm managers instant access to a lot of information.

There are now three main areas of AFS Connect: fleet, farm and data. Farm refers to agronomic visualization, fleet to unit visualization.

Connectivity can apply to anything from location to fuel level to fault codes or some of the issues you may see in the field, as well as notifications.

For example, if an employee is in the field pulling a planter and you don’t want them going faster than six m.p.h., you can set an alert so that if the speed does get up, you are notified instantly.”

Data transfer also takes a big leap forward with the Pro 1200. Even guidance lines can be transferred between machines wirelessly, and agronomic information including yield maps can be integrated into the display with the guidance lines.

Guidance is also run through a new receiver that incorporates all the necessary course correction hardware into it, eliminating the need for a second computer inside the cab to facilitate corrections.

As for the tractor itself, there are new hood and cab designs. Slimmer cab pillars and a new, brighter interior colour along with more creature comforts that give it an updated feel. And a full-width glass door eliminates the need for a B pillar. Improved front axle and cab suspension systems enhance the ride. It isn’t all electronics!

The post The new AFS Connect Magnum tractor appeared first on Country Guide.

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 integrated AutoTrac auto guidance system and JDLink telematics setup. The tractors will come fitted out with Deere’s 4240 in-cab displays and StarFire 6000 GPS receiver. This is the first time these options have been available in the 5 Series.

Add to that a suspended front axle plus variable-ratio steering, reconfigurable joystick, and new front hitch and PTO for model year 2019 tractors. As well, ISOBUS compatibility comes built-in, so they can interact with a wide range of implement systems.

“These updates and new features improve tractor manoeuvrability, minimize costs, improve visibility from the cab and enhance operator comfort,” said John Doyle, product marketing manager for John Deere.

The 5Rs stand on a short 2.25 metre (7.4 foot) wheelbase. And they now boast a 60-degree front wheel turn angle, giving them a 3.69 metre (12.1 foot) turning radius.

Variable ratio steering cuts the number of steering wheel turns needed to get to that maximum turn angle in half.

“Turns are eight per cent tighter than the next closest competitor and four inches shorter than the 5M. This provides an extra 17 degrees of steering angle,” Doyle said.

The cab gets some significant upgrades too. There is better visibility, and many of the interior features found on larger Deere tractors will make their way down to the 5R as well.

The CommandArm — adopted from their bigger brothers — is now available in a 5R cab. It provides a more ergonomic control layout with systems such as electro-hydraulic SCV controls.

Another convenience feature is a reconfigurable joystick, which allows operators to switch the function of the loader joystick from controlling the mid-SCVs to the rear SCVs.

“It’s easy to switch from controlling the loader to controlling the hydraulic functions of an implement, for example, opening and closing the gate on a baler,” Doyle said.

Essentially, Deere has created a compact tractor with all the conveniences available in its high-horsepower machines. And it thinks those producers who use them as field tractors will appreciate the new capabilities.

Case IH

Over at the red brand, Case IH has amped up its ability to compete in the competitive utility tractor market too.

“We’re launching three new models, 55A, 65A and 75A,” said Denny Stroo, livestock marketing manager. “They’re brand new for us. We launched these at Farm Progress in August of 2018.

“The 55A and 65A are cab-only tractors,” he continues. “In the 75A we’re doing both two-wheel drive or MFD models. MFD is our most popular option. The loader is built in the same plant the tractor is built in, and it’s specifically designed for this tractor. It’s available in self-levelling and non-self levelling.”

Case IH offers three different model lines in its Farmall series, the A, C and U.

“We really have three families or series of tractors now, the A, C and U,” said Stroo. “As more manufacturers have been coming into this utility tractor segment and adding more models, as we are, we have to differentiate these tractors. So we’re trying to use the good, better, best strategy. A good tractor we correlate to an economy level tractor: the Farmall A. The Farmall C is more of a deluxe level tractor, or breaking it down is a better tractor than the A. And the Farmall U is a premium level tractor — that best-level tractor.”

And when it comes to emissions, the 2.9-litre, three-cylinder diesels under the hoods of the A Series do not use particulate filters, so there is no mandatory regeneration periods.

“For 2018 forward, on all utility Farmall tractors no diesel particulate filter,” Stroo added. “What that means for a customer is they don’t have to go through a regeneration to clean that filter out. Therefore, no downtime to maintain a DPF, because it doesn’t exist on our tractors.”

The post New utility tractors for 2019 appeared first on Country Guide.

Some brands decided early on to go down the path of proprietary systems. Buy a green tractor, pair it with a full line of green machines and they’ll all work together much more efficiently than a multi-coloured fleet. That concept wasn’t — and still isn’t — exclusive to John Deere, however. But Deere was perhaps more forthright than the others, with senior executives at the company articulating how this would become a major marketing strategy for the company.

Then, of course, there was the issue of sharing field data with other users and other programs. That was far from a smooth procedure at the beginning, and many might argue there are still hurdles to overcome. But now there seems to be recognition throughout the industry that data compatibility is today’s must have.

I first heard a major brand executive admit this during a meeting with senior John Deere executives during Agritechnica in Germany last November. “John Deere was a technology island,” Klaus Braunhardt, Deere’s director of precision agriculture, said over lunch. “We recognized that.”

The plan going forward now, he explained, is to see Deere, and the industry overall, work toward greater digital integration. Not long ago, Case IH’s most senior manager made a similar commitment in a press release discussing that brand’s involvement in IoF2020.

On March 1, the IoF2020 (the Internet of Food and Farm — a European initiative) group met in Spain to offer “proof of concept” of the ADAPT digital framework that aims to improve compatibility between machines and make data sharing easier. That organization acknowledges that the current state of different machine technologies not being able to fully communicate is a problem, and it will limit the industry’s ability to move fully into precision agriculture.

“This project is another great step that will help farmers to increase efficiency by using their data without any boundaries,” says Andreas Klauser, Case IH brand president in a press release from the IoF2020 event.

ADAPT Framework focuses on “interoperability and compatibility” between farm machines, sensors and software. “It’s an open source software from AgGateway, based on a universal data compatibility model that uses plug-ins to enable translation between different proprietary data formats,” reads the official definition.

The Case IH statement says this concept will make it possible to use different types and brands of equipment with a wide variety of software or services, regardless of manufacturer.

“Our goal in this project is to continue to simplify how our customers share data between operators, machines and service providers like agronomists or contractors,” says Robert Zemenchik, global product marketing manager for Case IH Advanced Farming Systems.

“Today, industry standards have focused on machine standards for physical design and electronic compatibility. The ADAPT solution goes a step further using digital plug-ins to ensure the various data types generated by the group membership are compatible with farmer management information systems. Now that we have a working proof of concept, we will deliver data management solutions to our customers that will be much faster and easier to work with than in the past.”

The post Practical data appeared first on Country Guide.

Versatile, whose manufacturing plant is just two hours down the highway, has embraced the event as a place to show its new machines to a local audience.

“Ag days is always a good show for us; it’s our home market,” explains Adam Reid, Versatile’s marketing manager. “We’re well known here, so it makes sense for us to launch new products here. Because it’s the Brandon show, because it’s so close to home, we wanted to make sure we had a really good presence here this year.”

Big among the new products the brand debuted is the RT 520, the successor to the firm’s outgoing RT 490 combine. The 520 gets some tweaks to the same basic threshing body used on the 490, such as a larger clean grain elevator.

“[It] will actually help improve capacity especially in wet crops,” Reid says. “We also have a new feeder chain system on the front.”

But the main improvements are up front where the operator lives.

“The feedback from customers has been good on the threshing,” says Reid. “But they really wanted more operator comfort, especially with the amount of time you spend in there. So in addition to making the cab bigger, we’ve made it quieter.”

The RT 520 cab is about 30 per cent larger than on the previous model and it gets a more comfortable environment with a more ergonomic control layout.

“All the changes the customers have been asking us for have now been integrated into the 520,” Reid says. “We’ve also increased the lighting kit by more than two and a half times. So for someone jumping out of an RT 490 and into a 520, it’s almost a night and day difference.”

Versatile has had a long-time relationship with Cummins, so the RT 520 will get that brand’s 12-litre QSG six-cylinder diesel for a power plant.

“Versatile has been in a partnership with Cummins for 52 years now,” Reid notes. “When we looked at what our dealers were used to working on and what the demands were, Cummins had the right engine for us. It’s got the right mix of power and fuel economy. We probably have more power in this combine than we actually need. We’ve never had a farmer complain to us about the power.”

The new combine sticks with the Versatile philosophy of being simple, reliable and easy to maintain, according to Reid. He notes that the brand’s evaluation showed that the most difficult drive belt to change required only a little more than an hour of downtime. And he adds the overall design is intended to accommodate in-field repair and maintenance.

“2018 will be a limited release,” Reid says. “Versatile tends to approach all our new products with a little more caution at the outset, just to make sure we’re providing the right product to the market.”

Anniversary tractor

The combine wasn’t the only thing Versatile took to Brandon to catch farmers’ eyes. A one-off 365 tractor painted in black was also there to celebrate 25 years of front-wheel assist tractor production at the Winnipeg plant.

It isn’t the first time Versatile has offered tractors with a unique paint scheme. Its limited production 50th anniversary four-wheel-drive tractors painted in a “legacy” themed livery easily sold out almost before the program was widely publicized.

Says Reid: “When you say Versatile, people think of four-wheel drives. But we do have a 25-year legacy of building front-wheel assist tractors as well. What we did for the 25th anniversary is one tractor. It’s done in black paint with a silver fleck in it, of course 25 years being a silver anniversary. We’re just doing one right now, but if there’s demand we might build a few more.”

The post Versatile debuts new machinery for 2018 appeared first on Country Guide.

This is a competition the Europeans take pretty seriously. The judging panel is made up of 24 ag machinery journalists, and the evaluation process involves more than a cursory inspection. Evaluations start in May and run for a few months through the summer.

This year 22 tractors were entered and each actually underwent a series of field trials at 14 different locations that put more than 100 hours on each of their clocks. The number of entries speaks to the value of such a prize for manufacturers.

“Only field tests give the judges the ability to properly test the tractors,” Fabio Sammaretti, the TOTY chairman, said during the awards presentation ceremony in Hanover, Germany. “This is a contest, and in the end there can only be one winner.”

Well, in this case, four actually.

“I’m extremely proud of what we’ve seen this year in innovations,” said Paulo Pomei, president of tire manufacturer Trelleborg. (That brand was one of the award sponsors.) “These awards can be considered the Oscars of the agricultural industry.”

Italian manufacturer ARGO’s McCormick X6 440 VT Drive tractor won in the utility class. McCormick introduced the line here early in 2017, with their CVT transmission giving the brand a model to compete with upmarket competitors.

But undoubtedly AGCO was the big winner in the TTOY competition this year. Its new T254 Smart Touch Valtra won in both the general category and best design awards. (The best design award winner is picked from the finalist machines in each of the other categories.)

The T254 is packed with cool features, such as a heads-up windshield display for gauges that Canadian farmers can read about, but for the moment cannot buy.

AGCO discontinued distribution of its Valtra line in North America several years ago, but these new features will likely bleed into tractors in the brand’s other lines — eventually. That’s been the case with most of the technologies so far.

AGCO’s 112-hp, vineyard Fendt 211 Vario V picked up the Best of Specialized award. We don’t get that one here in Canada either.

We may not pick a tractor of the year here in North America, but there are a variety of awards handed out to equipment manufacturers on this side of the Atlantic as well. And one of the most prestigious is the Good Design award given out by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design. It isn’t always won by a farm equipment manufacturer. So when it is, that’s something for a brand to brag about.

This year Case IH’s autonomous Magnum tractor took one of them back to the brand headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin. Caterpillar can also lay claim to one of these awards from many years ago when it launched the Challenger 65, the first belted ag tractor.

The Magnum was revealed to the public two years ago and has since been on a global odyssey, appearing at a variety of farm machinery shows on different continents. It was originally billed as a “concept study” and the brand invited farmer feedback. Apparently, it got just that.

“From talking to customers in different countries, we see that for the near term, they want to have the flexibility of still having a cab on the tractor. This is the direction we are taking because we want our customers to feel comfortable as they begin to delegate more tasks to the machines,” said Andreas Klauser, Case IH Brand president in a press release.

So despite putting out an award-winning design, the autonomous Magnum will need to change form before it sees commercial production.

In February, also watch for news from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), which is announcing its full list of the 50 agricultural machinery engineering design winners that will get an AE50 award. The list of winners is unveiled at their annual convention that coincides with the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky.

The post And the Oscar goes to… appeared first on Country Guide.

Carling was talking to us in Boone, Iowa in August, and said, “We’re introducing new styling… It’s something we’re calling functional styling. It has a purpose.”

For instance, the redesigned hood contributes to improved engine cooling and, along with some new engineering tweaks, helps reduce overall fluid consumption by five per cent, Carling said.

But what is more likely to grab the attention of potential buyers is a new dual clutch, 24×24 powershift transmission option set to be introduced in new-model Maxxums.

This new transmission offers high-end features which will bring CaseIH into line with some competing brands that already offer sophisticated powershifts with similar features in their comparable machines.

“ActiveDrive 8 is a brand new transmission for Case IH,” Carling said. “It has three ranges with eight powershift gears in each range.”

Shifting through the middle range allows an operator to choose working speeds between 2.4 and 10.7 m.p.h. without torque interruptions and without requiring range changes.

The ActiveDrive’s “smart range shifting” feature can even do the gear selecting all on its own. The operator simply selects a faster or slower ground speed and the transmission will change to the most efficient gear to achieve that under the existing load.

Although buyers will find a clutch pedal in the usual place in Maxxum tractors equipped with the ActiveDrive 8 transmission, they won’t need to use it much. The “brake-to-clutch” feature allows an operator to just step on the brake pedals to stop the tractor. Then just release the brake and to start off again.

Shuttle shifting doesn’t require clutching either. Flip the lever and the tractor stops and changes direction. The memory shuttle feature means the tractor automatically shuttles into the last reverse gear used, which seamlessly provides the right forward and reverse speeds for repetitive operations.

The brand’s line of Steiger articulated tractors also gets a new transmission option for 2018. The 370 to 540 models now become the first to offer a CVT in a high-horsepower articulated tractor.

The decision to introduce a CVT was the result of customer demand, said Mitch Kaiser, marketing manager for the Steiger tractor line. “When you look at what customers want, they want to control their application more. So we’re offering the new Steiger CVXDrive. It’s strong, it’s smart, and it’s simple.”

Simplicity is a big part of why Kaiser thinks farmers will appreciate this transmission.

“There’s just two settings the operator has to remember to make it smart,” he explained. “We have a dual throttle design. The inside one controls the torque the tractor is running at, and the outside one controls your throttle setting. The CVXDrive is going to think for itself and give you the amount of horsepower needed at the lowest r.p.m. required to pull the load.”

In fact, Kaiser thinks the CVXDrive will expand the range of jobs a Steiger tractor can conveniently handle.

Just as you’d expect to find on any CVT tractor, a propulsion lever on the right armrest gets the machine moving. But a foot pedal will also make that happen, freeing up a driver’s right hand to control other functions like hydraulics. Shifting back and forth between forward and reverse can be done in a couple of ways as well, with a pair of buttons on the propulsion lever or via a shuttle lever on the left side of the steering wheel.

The transmission has three “cruise control” settings that will maintain tractor field speeds. It also has three sensitivity settings that create less responsive reactions to control inputs for delicate jobs like backing up to an implement to hitch it up.

Inside, the transmission uses four ranges to help the engine deliver maximum torque, and the transmission automatically makes those shifts internally, without any input from the operator. The operator doesn’t even notice them when they happen.

Engineers designed the CVXDrive to fit into the existing Steiger chassis, so it doesn’t compromise any other systems. Buyers can still get a PTO in all models along with up to eight remote hydraulic valves and a three-point hitch that lifts 20,000 pounds (9,090 kilograms).

And there’s even more flexibility here. With the CVX, the Steigers can inch along as slowly as three feet per minute or hit the road at up to 25 m.p.h.

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Now, they’ve turned that dream into a market-ready implement and a fledgling equipment brand.

Their on-farm creation, the PPS planter, can handle all the crop types they grow on their own farm, including corn, soybeans, wheat and canola. Plus it can apply a full fertilizer application in the same pass, so this one machine does the job of both a planter and a seed drill.

Now comes another challenge that may seem just as big. Can they successfully market the PPS under their company name Capricorn Bay?

Agriculture has seen many farms do something similar in the past, starting with an on-farm invention and building it into a machinery brand. In fact, it’s how many Canadian short-line manufacturers got started.

But ask any executive from those companies about that experience, and they’ll say it was far from easy.

The Prince’s PPS single-pass planter went on display for the first time at western farm shows this summer, where I met Frank Prince standing beside the PPS single-pass planter and we discussed its evolution. Prince explained the planter was the result of several years of on-farm improvisation. Initially, the family was just trying to simplify their own operation.

“We’ve grown corn and soybeans for 15 years, roughly, and we’ve done multiple things to planters to try and put fertilizer on all in one pass, and it’s never worked,” Prince says. “There are lots of other issues with 15-inch spacing toolbars… for ease of working on, for residue, for rocks. So we just said why not put two rows on there and have a row for fertilizer.”

In the process of dealing with those challenges, the family decided to go much further in tailoring a custom planter to their own needs.

“Most planters have a 100-bushel seed tank on them,” Prince explains. “That’s fine for corn, and in canola it’s awesome. But in soybeans it’s 80- to 100-acre fills. For our big fields, all you do is fill all day. So I said why not pull a cart that lets you put on a sizeable amount of seed? We picked 400 (bushels) because you can do a half (section) with soybeans with that and make it commercializable for Western Canada.”

But that kind of tinkering with planter design means it probably won’t suit farmers everywhere. “Will it go to Iowa, probably not,” Prince acknowledges. But as they start their venture direct selling from their farm, it means they have the ability to customize the design to suit a pretty broad variety of farmer needs.

The planter on display in Regina was set up with twin-row openers spaced 20 inches apart that place seed in alternating 7- and 13-inch row spacings. Prince says the configuration has worked well on their farm.

“This one’s twice as easy to work on as the other ones,” he says. “The one I designed has lots of room to work on it. It’s seven inches between two rows and then 13. If someone wants to do wheat or peas, I know it works.”

The drill is able to seed and place one or two fertilizer blends in the furrow. The front bar lays down the main fertilizer application, making it a true single-pass seeder.

“I think the most common spacing would be 15-inch,” said Prince. “Guys will do corn, soybean and canola with them.”

The row units are sourced from U.S.-based Harvest International, and are capable of working at field speeds up to 10 m.p.h. Sorensen Welding in Minnesota builds the unique toolbars for the company.

Partnering with outside manufacturers, not just for the row units but the toolbar as well, allowed the family to build on the expertise of other qualified people and get modifications that advanced their objectives.

“This is his design,” says Prince of the toolbar built by Sorensen. “I went to him and said this is what I want to build. He’s built planters before, so there are things I’m not going to know about that he would. And there are things I’m going to know about that he wouldn’t.”

Getting the benefit of that input gave the family a head start on the design, but there was still some fine tuning to do. Running three working units in the field on different farms and getting feedback from that experience has led to some minor design modifications. The original design on display this summer will not be exactly like those to be sold as PPS machines going forward.

“The casters are too small, they’re getting upgraded to a lot bigger caster,” Prince says. “We had to update the (wing) fold for how much weight was on it. Other than that, the bars have been flawless.”

So far, the Prince family has built three planters and the intention is to offer three toolbars in 40-, 60- and 80-foot working widths. “You can have whatever row spacing you’d like on it,” says Prince.

Interestingly, the family may not remain content with having just a single implement in their emerging machinery brand. There are some very ambitious plans afoot to create custom-built, very high-horsepower tractors, bigger than any off-the-shelf model currently available. “The goal was to build this first,” Prince says of the planter. “Next winter the plan is to put the tractor together.”

Anyone interested in finding out more about the PPS planter can contact the Prince family farm by phone at 204-576-3500.

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