One of Agritechnica’s two coveted gold medals was awarded to Kemper this year, for their Stalkbuster, which breaks up corn stubble, destroying overwintering habitat for corn borer. “In Canada and the U.S. you don’t have a lot of corn borer problems because you have Bt corn,” says Georg Wigger of Kemper, in the following TechTour… Read More
Category: Machinery
Finally, the answer to the What the heck is this? Facebook challenge. Inspired primarily by curiosity (and, dare we say confusion?), RealAgriculture’s Shaun Haney and Jason Stroeve set up their equipment in Broch territory, at Agritechnica in Hanover, Germany. There, they spoke to Jose A. Lostal, about a machine many of us have likely never… Read More
Lawn mowing is a task that some people enjoy, but many would just as soon spend that time doing something else in summer. (Count me among the latter.) The technology for autonomous mowing machines that stay within a wire perimeter has been around for a while, and sales of electric Roomba-like grass-cutters have surged in… Read More
Are you planning to build a new farm workshop? How will you power and heat it? Do you want a crane? In episode 3 of Real Dream Workshops, Peter Johnson visits his neighbour Otto Bloemen at Lucan, Ontario-based OJB Industries. Bloeman tells Johnson how he set out to build a cost-effective wood-frame building with high insulation… Read More
Mechanically harvesting, drying and handling grain corn can compromise quality and take a bite out of a grower’s bottom line.Earlier this fall, OMAFRA crop systems and environment engineer James Dyck worked with Dietrich Farms of Lucan, Ontario to study mechanical breakage – the impact it has on dockage and what growers can do to reduce… Read More
Vervaet’s hydro-trike slurry spreader was developed in collaboration with contractors nearly twenty years ago. As its name suggests, it’s a three- or five-wheeled, self-propelled machine, which offers up to 20,000 litres in capacity. And, even the five-wheeled option is built with soil health in mind. “So each wheel has its own track to minimize soil… Read More
Regina-based ag equipment manufacturer Brandt Group of Companies has announced what it describes as a “major expansion into the U.S. market” with a deal to buy a 200,000 sq foot manufacturing facility in Illinois. Brandt is buying a plant and equipment at Bloomington-Normal from Kongskilde Industries, which was acquired by New Holland earlier this year. It’s… Read More
AGCO’s new generation of combine harvester made its first public appearance at Agritechnica in Germany last month. The result of the company’s largest ever product development project, the graphite-coloured IDEAL combine will be sold under AGCO’s Challenger, Fendt and Massey Ferguson brands. “We started from a clean sheet of paper. It’s a complete new combine…and… Read More
There are many ways to harvest crops, from pick-up to straight-cut headers. But, have you ever considered a stripper header? Designed largely for cereals, grass seed and rice farming, a stripper header has rotating teeth that lift the grain into the combine, essentially leaving everything else in the field. This has multiple potential benefits: The… Read More
Automation is not be the only innovative path the agricultural machinery world is headed down. Fendt unveiled an all-electric tractor — the e100 Vario — this fall, and had it on display at Agritechnica in Hanover, Germany. “We’ve removed the diesel engine and the diesel tank and have installed an electric motor with a 100kWh… Read More