Flexible draper headers have a lot of things to get right when loaded to capacity in tough harvesting conditions
When MacDon requested customer input on updates for its new FD2 FlexDraper, increased efficiency was a common request. “The combines keep getting larger and you have to be able to feed them to the capacity or the load they want to be fed. If you took a header that we built 15-20 years ago and […] Read moreMachinery — page 51
Vertical till: old idea with new twists, medium-sized
Fine tuning the new VT-Flex 435 means letting it get to know the field and all its facets and dimensions
Vertical tillage isn’t new. The machines gained a toehold in the 1990s when Manitoba’s Todd Botterill brought some Salford demonstration units west. Today, nearly every short-line manufacturer offers VT equipment. After all these years, people have yet to devise a firm definition of VT or a definitive recommendation on how to use VT. Some growers […] Read more
Deere strike set to continue as workers reject second contract
Nov 3 (Reuters) – Deere & Co workers were set to continue their three-week-old strike on Wednesday after they voted to reject a second contract reached between the U.S. tractor maker and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union that bumped up wages and bonuses. Shares of Deere were down 2.6 percent in early trade. The […] Read more
Weed control game getting hotter
As the world cranks up the call for chemical-free crop protection, scientists and inventors are searching the weeds for acceptable solutions that not only eliminate chemicals but soundly kills weeds dead. One of the more promising innovations is currently being developed by Chaplin, Sask., farmer Ron Gleim, whose X-Steam-inator has progressed well beyond the experimental […] Read more
Kinze offers big cart upgrades
Kinze Manufacturing is expanding and upgrading its family of dual auger carts for the 2022 harvest. The lineup will be renamed Harvest Commander and Kinze Man will definitely stay. The upgrade coincides with the 50th anniversary of Kinze’s first grain cart, introduced in 1971. Although Kinze carts go all the way up to 1,700 bushels, […] Read more
A shocking way to terminate plants without herbicide interventions
The first people to try electricity to kill unwanted vegetation were the United States-based railroads in the 1890s. Scientists working for the railroads discovered that their new technology, high-voltage electricity, killed weeds dead. Today, 130 years later, scientists are still working to perfect and commercialize electric weed-killing technology. Hybrid electric desiccation is one of the […] Read more
Deere workers go on strike after UAW fails to reach deal
(Reuters) – Thousands of Deere & Co workers began a strike on Thursday, the United Auto Workers (UAW) said, days after overwhelmingly rejecting a six-year labor contract that was agreed on with the tractor maker. Earlier this month, the world’s largest farm equipment maker and the UAW union reached an agreement after weeks of negotiation […] Read more
Who is left to buy the used iron?
Large farms face a problem as small-to-medium sized farms disappear, according to a new analysis paper from Agri-Food Economic Systems. Large operators sell their used equipment to help finance future technology improvements but they need enough medium-sized operations to buy it. “Wide swaths of farms are being left behind… in the wake of rapid growth […] Read more
Upgrade your tire change equipment, Jack
Many factors can lead to injury or death when changing big tires on high clearance sprayers, combines or tractors. These tragedies often occur when the jacks or blocking give way. There are distinct trends at play. As the number of farmer-owned sprayers increases, their use in applying nutrients and crop protection products also increases, and […] Read more
Do it yourself green on brown spotting
Open source weed detection for sprayers or precision tillage is based on camera sensors identifying the targets
The design for a green on brown weed locator is now available to anyone who wants to build their own site-specific weed management tool. The OpenWeedLocator (OWL) is an open-source, low-cost image-based approach for fallow weed detection. Guy Coleman from the University of Sydney, Australia, is working on the project. He said the OWL is […] Read more
