Reading Time: 3 minutes Stretched out across the large grassy lawn in early June in front of John Deere’s Harvester Works in Moline, Illinois, was a broad assortment of equipment, with marketing staff showing off to the farm media from Canada and the U.S. what Deere would be adding to its product line for 2018. Several of the machines […] Read more
John Deere looks to 2018
New combines figure big in the green brand’s plan to get you buying
A Genius in the tractor cab
This systems supplier is integrating cutting-edge automotive safety systems into off-road equipment cabs
Reading Time: 4 minutes A few years ago I had the pleasure of interviewing the industrial designer who styled the cab and body of the first Challenger 65 belted ag tractors, which were then part of the Caterpillar brand before coming under AGCO ownership. Before coming to Cat, the designer had spent several years working for General Motors and […] Read more
The paint does matter
Versatile draws on inspiration from its past to position itself for future growth
Reading Time: 5 minutes It isn’t much of a surprise when Versatile shows up for the annual Manitoba Ag Days. The show, after all, is just two hours from the Versatile factory, so the company’s regular attendance is pretty much a given. Local farmers expect to see the brand put in an appearance there every year, and they’re never […] Read more
AGCO bets big on China
While the war of words heats up between Beijing and Washington, AGCO is becoming a major player in the Chinese economy
Reading Time: 6 minutes One of the world’s largest farm equipment manufacturers is predicting a bright future in China, and it is putting its money behind that belief. AGCO, parent company of well-known brands Massey Ferguson, Fendt, Valtra, GSI, and Challenger, has opened a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Changzhou to serve both its international needs and what it […] Read more
The machines, they are a changin’
Farm machinery is undergoing a historic period of evolution, with rapid changes that will soon show up in your sheds
Reading Time: 6 minutes Earlier this fall, it was announced that Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature. I have to admit, I didn’t see that coming. Not to take anything away from his talent, it’s just that I wouldn’t have expected to hear he had won that kind of award, any more than I would have expected […] Read more
The ag-robots are here
Get set for the biggest change since the invention of the tractor
Reading Time: 6 minutes Standing in front of a fully autonomous T8 tractor, New Holland’s vice-president, Bret Lieberman summed up what the company is telling its people in just two sentences at this year’s U.S. Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa. “This industry has evolved considerably over the last 100 years,” Lieberman said. “I don’t think that any of […] Read more
Challenger tames the tiger
Two transmission outputs drive AGCO’s new 1000 Series
Reading Time: 4 minutes At this year’s U.S. Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, AGCO’s senior VP and general manager for the Americas Bob Crain was clearly enthusiastic about the new tractors he was there to introduce, particularly the 1000 Series very-high horsepower, rigid-frame models that were originally introduced under the Fendt brand last year. Now, they are also […] Read more
A new Tier 3 tractor
MTZ Equipment adds the aggressively priced, high-horsepower Kirovets tractors to its lineup
Reading Time: 4 minutes Any farmer who’s ever worn a hat with a machinery-brand logo on it has likely heard of Belarus tractors, although that doesn’t mean all those farmers ever believed that Belarus really measured up to the top-selling North American-built machines, whether in green, red, blue or yellow. That’s fair enough, because right from their introduction to […] Read more
Farm tractors with global design in mind
AGCO’s new MF utility tractors are designed for worldwide appeal
Reading Time: 3 minutes Back in early 1970, International Harvester released two tractors that made up what it called its Worldwide Series. The idea was to use shared platforms to build tractors that could appeal to farmers in every market where the brand had a presence. They would meet a global need — or that was the hope. Standardized […] Read more
A new era on the farm begins
We’re living at the dawn of the robot as hired farmhand
Reading Time: 6 minutes A friend has been keeping me posted by email about her trouble finding a full-time employee for the family farm in Saskatchewan. If it didn’t represent such a serious problem for the operation, the details would actually be pretty funny. A few — how do I say it? — less-than-adequate applicants are all her efforts […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
