GUELPH, Ont. — Farmers are familiar with map overlays for yield, topography, soil type, macro and micro nutrients, weeds and insects. But what about an overlay for soil radioactivity? Some farmers attending this summer’s Manure Expo in Guelph just walked past the booth that dealt with field mapping radioactivity, joking about science fiction and perpetual […] Read more
Ron Lyseng
Stories by Ron Lyseng
Stationary units run themselves
Labour saving | Look ma, no person
GUELPH, Ont. — Farmers are forced to employ more remote control diesel engines as manpower becomes a larger limiting factor. They are putting remote control diesel power on grain augers in the yard, irrigation pumps in the field, agitation and aeration pumps for liquid slurry, pumps to de-water flooded low areas and pumps to bring […] Read more
Vermeer’s big machines put up dry manure by the bag
GUELPH, Ont. — When it comes to managing dry manure, it’s hard to beat the armoury of big guns Vermeer recently brought to the annual Manure Expo in Guelph. American farmers are finding economic benefits to composting dry manure rather than simply spreading the raw product on their fields, says Ted Dirkx, a recycling solutions […] Read more
Inflate, deflate tire pressure quickly from cab
No long wait times | The AAID system releases air from the tire into the atmosphere instead of back through the system
GUELPH, Ont. — Soft low-pressure implement tires are best in the field. Harder higher pressure tires are best in transit. Can farmers have their cake and eat it, too? An Ontario producer thinks they can. Jake Kraayenbrink, a hog producer from Moorefield, Ont., who also does custom slurry hauling with his fleet of large liquid […] Read more
New tracks designed for soupy, sloppy soil
GUELPH, Ont. — Manure, mud and debris have been the bane of rubber tracks for decades, and that’s a major factor behind Soucy’s new track design. The problem is especially bad for livestock producers who use their tractors in the acidic environment of soupy, sloppy manure, often mixed with sand, according to Soucy’s Percy Collins. […] Read more
Float your boat in a slurry moat
It used to be impossible to adequately mix, stir and aerate stratified layers in a large 10-acre manure lagoon using on-shore equipment or floating aerators. However, Nuhn has made the job possible with a new amphibious machine it calls the Lagoon Crawler. “You drive it into the lagoon. Your four-wheel steering and forward- backward control […] Read more
Kinze planter picks up pace
Faster and accurate | New planters cover more ground but keep precision
Not to be outdone by two new high-speed European imports, the American Kinze plans to introduce a new planter for 2014. Increasing farm size and rising income has fuelled demand for planters capable of working at double speed while maintaining 99 percent accuracy. In recent months, Seed Hawk introduced their new Tempo planter from Sweden […] Read moreLooming late fall means some growers may not have time for post-harvest weed control
Farmers who normally spray their wheat fields after harvest might be squeezed out of that window this year due to the lateness of the 2013 crop. The windows for spraying could be closed by the time combines are off the fields, according to Curtis MacKinnon of Farmers Edge in Pilot Mound, Man. “I certainly wouldn’t […] Read more
Draper takes the shakes out of harvest
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, as the saying goes, and a combine is only as efficient as its most inefficient component. New Holland’s latest contribution to the global body of combine knowledge is a pair of new draper headers, the 840CD rigid and the 880CF SuperFlex. The engineering trick that […] Read more
Video: Vertical tillage machine enters heavy clay zone
Strength behind Twister | Operators in heavy clay areas can adjust the normal zero disc angle up to nine degrees
Farmers learned long ago that tillage equipment designed for light soil often ended up on the scrap metal pile after it hits heavy clay soil. Over the decades, that fact fostered a unique manufacturing niche running parallel to the mainstream that specialized in robust equipment for heavy clay soil. These designers focused on farmers in […] Read more
