Manitoba farmers produce about four million litres of waste oil per year while Saskatchewan farmers produce more than eight million litres. In rural Alberta nearly 40 million litres are collected annually. Now that driveway dumping is prohibited, that’s a lot of oil that needs to go somewhere. “Here in Manitoba, farms account for approximately 25 […] Read more
Production
Waste oil put to good use
Low-temp anaerobic digestion
Conventional anaerobic biodigesters do a fine job of breaking manure down into basic elements, but they need temperatures of 35 to 40 C. For high-speed biodigesters, it’s more like 50 C. All of this biodigestion is good for the environment, but the supplemental heat is a major operating cost, no matter what fuel is burned. […] Read more
Anaerobic biodigestion for dummies
The term “anaerobic digestion” was hanging around long before I chose to ignore it in my high school chemistry class. I never paid much attention to it until recently when experts said phosphorous is the real environmental culprit on hog farms. That’s when anaerobic biodigestion became relevant for chem-dummies like myself. I looked it up […] Read more
Big footprint good in tires
The only contact between tractor and soil is the tire. It is also the only opportunity farmers have to connect their fuel investment to their land investment. The obvious exceptions are rubber track tractors that do an excellent job putting down the power while removing most of the variables that exist with tires. However, if […] Read more
Grain pit allows speedy dumping
FARGO, N.D. – An in-ground grain pit can be a handy thing to have at harvest time, especially if it’s automated so you can just dump and get back to the field. Ryan Jackson from Lowry, Minnesota, has been building and selling Lowry DumPits for 25 years. He says once a farmer goes through his […] Read more
New gauge wheel simplifies seeding into mud
FARGO, N.D. – Gauge wheels that plug with mud are a frustration when seeding into heavy, wet soils. The seeder loses depth accuracy, and frequent stops to clean the wheels wastes precious time. That’s exactly the problem the Smith family at Hazel, South Dakota, has battled for two decades. Their response has been to design […] Read more
Air drill hitch gets smarter
Farmers who have installed the SeedMaster Smart Hitch on their air drills say it does a good job of guiding their openers down the path between last year’s stubble rows. But nothing is so good that it can’t be improved. Norbert Beaujot, the brains behind the Smart Hitch, said his system needed more help to […] Read more
Destroyer flattens rodent mounds
Six years ago Stewart and Irene Walker decided they’d had enough of hay fields and pastures too rough for their equipment. Pocket gophers were infesting the Kamsack, Sask., couple’s fields, leaving the land so lumpy that they had no choice but to tear it up and replant their forages. “It can be a serious problem […] Read more
New Products – Rolling and lifting
Lifting a swath roller without getting out of the cab and without the use of a hand-cranked winch is an appealing option for producers. Freeform Plastics in St. Brieux, Sask., has a pair of new hydraulically controlled swath rollers that are operated with a cab-mounted rocker switch. The units are designed to fit nearly all […] Read more
Drill topples electronic barrier
FARGO, N.D. – The ISOBUS 11783 criteria intended to standardize electronic communications among agricultural implements has been around for a while, but it seems some manufacturers try harder than others to make it work for farmers. The latest air drill from the Horsch Anderson company in Andover, South Dakota, is one of those implements designed […] Read more
