If a 90-inch gap between your sprayer underbelly and the Earth’s crust isn’t enough, then you’d better get an airplane
High-clearance sprayers are reaching great new heights as they’re called upon to dribble nitrogen and spray fungicide and other crop protection products on corn as well as work in tall horticultural crops. Steve Simon of Simon Innovations is head and shoulders above original equipment manufacturers and other aftermarket lift kit companies with his high-clearance lifters […] Read moreMachinery — page 2
Sport park turf design goes high tech
Baseball park lawns always appear so perfect with their logos and alternating light and dark stripes, determined by the direction the grass blades lay and how they catch and either absorb or reflect the light. And, while it might not be agriculture as we think of it, there might be some lessons to learn from […] Read more
Producers finding skid steers essential to farm
I asked producers through social media where skid steers fit on Canadian farms and it quickly became apparent that many farmers are very fond of the little loaders. “Chop off your right arm and that’s what life would be like without a skid steer,” said Brain Barnett, who farms near Moose Jaw, Sask. Matching equipment […] Read more
Busted chipped engine could cost you $100,000
The days are long gone when we would simply crank the screw a half turn on the injection pump to squeeze out an extra 75 horses. It’s a little bit more complicated today. You can still gain a lot of performance with aftermarket chips, but they are usually from questionable sources. What about the consequences? […] Read more
Crary returns with giant 45-foot air reel
Big headers outgrew the time-honored Crary Air Reel system, but they’re back thanks to farmer demand
FARGO, N.D. — Crary started building air reels in the mid-1980s and they proved popular in most crops and most harvest conditions. Then combine heads started growing… and growing… and Crary technology became obsolete. Heads at 40 and 45 feet are now considered normal. To span that width, manufacturers started splitting the head in the […] Read more
New aftermarket tracks restore original combine gearing
FARGO, N.D. — The benefits of installing rubber tracks on combines are well known. However, the big knock on aftermarket tracks is that they screw up your gearing and limit your road speed. On many farms, the upside of rubber tracks in the field trounced the downside of reduced transit speed on the roads. Farmers […] Read more
Farmers embrace front mount booms
Locating the boom directly over the steering axle improves the turning response, which is useful in tight fields
It was a big day for front boomers when red Miller Nitros received blue New Holland paint. When Nitro became Guardian, it instantly gave front boomers a large dealer network. Now that another major manufacturer has entered this expanding market, it gave the front boom trend a further node of respectability, according to Bob Moore […] Read more
One machine performs all tasks in single pass
A big red beet harvester from Agrifac in the Netherlands is a 12-row machine that is completely self-contained
FARGO, N.D. — Agrifac brought its big red Hexx Traxx beet harvester to show off at the Big Iron equipment show in Fargo this year. The technically marvelous machine from the Netherlands performs all harvest operations in a single pass. European growers switched over to self-propelled beet harvesters 35 years ago, with Agrifac leading that […] Read more
Conveyor trailer unloads 4,000 pounds per minute
This aluminum Agrilite trailer reduces producers’ fill time by 300 percent, thanks to its 10-foot conveyor reach
CORRECTION – 1300 CST November 8, 2018 – This story originally stated the conveyor trailer was capable of unloading 4,000 bushels per minute. The correct rate is 4,000 pounds per minute. FARGO, N.D. — They named the show Big Iron, with special emphasis on “iron,” but there’s always some aluminum and stainless steel that sneaks […] Read more
A screwdriver changed a farmer’s life path
For Brian Olson, who made his mark with PowerPin, safety awards mean less than saving a life or preventing injury
The epiphany happens instantly for some people. For others, the revelation is gradual. For Brian Olson, the motivation to focus his life on safe farm equipment came in mere minutes. Olson recalls the day in 1988 when it finally struck him full force that the process of moving farm equipment was inherently a very dangerous […] Read more
