Reading Time: 2 minutes Washington | Reuters — The U.S Federal Trade Commission voted Wednesday to make it a priority to address the issue of manufacturers pushing consumers to use licensed dealers to repair items ranging from smartphones to farm equipment, a practice that critics call anti-competitive. The five commissioners, three Democrats and two Republicans, voted unanimously to approve […] Read more
U.S. FTC votes to make ‘right to repair’ a priority
Commission also drops 1995 merger policy
The move to electric accelerates
When you talk about electric drive for farm machinery, don’t say “if.” It’s “soon”
Reading Time: 6 minutes When General Motors chairman and CEO, Mary Bara, made her presentation to an online audience during the Consumer Electronics Show in January, what she had to reveal was worth listening to, to say the least. GM, an automotive brand that has been building vehicles with internal combustion engines for over 100 years, is committing to […] Read more
Now that’s a beauty of a tractor
The look of today’s John Deere tractor starts in its partnership with BMW Designworks
Reading Time: 5 minutes If you walk into a BMW-owned automotive design studio, you’d expect to see scale models and concept drawings of all sorts of sleek automobiles. Seeing a scale model John Deere bulldozer among them might be a bit of a shock. But if it’s the BMW Designworks studio in Newbury Park, California, that you walk into, […] Read more
Indian farmers ride caravan of tractors into capitol ahead of Republic Day
Farmers reject government's offer to suspend ag market reforms
Reading Time: 2 minutes New Delhi | Reuters — Caravans of tractors clogged a key highway in northern India on Monday as tens of thousands of farmers protesting against agriculture reforms streamed into the capital ahead of Republic Day, and police said they were prepared to deal with the crowds. India marks its founding as a republic on Tuesday […] Read more
Career in ag machinery true to form
Assessing the legacy Martin Richenhagen leaves behind at AGCO
Reading Time: 7 minutes [UPDATED: Dec. 18, 2020] Having spent many years covering ag machinery, I recall all the times I found myself having a drink with other machinery writers at the end of a busy day, only to notice how often we’d all be agog at something we’d heard AGCO CEO Martin Richenhagen say. To be clear, we […] Read more
Awaiting the autonomous tractor
How soon will there be a self-driving, autonomous tractor in your shed?
Reading Time: 9 minutes Over the years, all the major machinery brands have shown autonomous concept tractors to the public at farm machinery shows. They clearly wanted to get the message out that they have the engineering ability to build them. For example, CaseIH displayed its concept autonomous Magnum tractor at the U.S. Farm Progress show in 2016 where […] Read more
AGCO adds to its Global Massey Ferguson tractor line
Two new 5700 Series models hit the market for 2020
Reading Time: 2 minutes In the last couple of years, major brands have been producing utility and mid-range tractors with powershift transmissions that don’t require clutching. In October AGCO announced it, too, is adding that type of transmission to its “Global” 5700 Series Massey Ferguson tractor family. Two new models, the 100-horsepower 5710D and 111-horsepower 5711D models will join […] Read more
John Deere revamps its 6M tractor family
New models and more options to appeal to different buyers
Reading Time: 3 minutes John Deere has been offering a pretty wide range of tractors designed to appeal to an equally wide group of buyers looking for power in the mid-horsepower class. In the 105- to 250-horsepower group, the green brand’s 6 Family of tractors already offers an impressive 20 models from the economy 6Es to the high-end 6Rs. […] Read more
Why Kubota thinks you’ll buy more of its farm equipment
The Texas-based manufacturer sees both end-users and retail dealers as its customers
Reading Time: 5 minutes As I walked through Kubota’s new headquarters in Grapevine, Texas, one particular observation stood out to me. In other companies’ offices and engineering centres that I’ve visited, there was never any shortage of images of the brand’s machines lining the hallway walls. The offices in the Kubota building were stylish and comfortable with plenty of […] Read more
Angry farmers cause Dutch police to close off parliament square
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Hague | Reuters — Police in the Dutch city of The Hague closed its central parliament square on Wednesday to keep out farmers protesting over what they see as attempts to blame them for nitrogen pollution. Thousands of irate farmers had driven tractors to The Hague hours earlier in their third large protest in […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
