FARGO, N.D. – Scrap the old notion that strip tillage is just for Iowa corn farmers. Judging by the number of strip till implements and field demonstrations at the Big Iron Show in Fargo last month, strip till is headed our way. Big Iron is the North Dakota version of Western Canada’s Farm Progress Show, […] Read more
Production
Strip tillage migrates north
Blu-Jet strip till implement complex, but efficient
FARGO, N.D. – As one farmer studied the Thurston Blu-Jet strip till implement at the Big Iron farm show in North Dakota, he counted the working pieces and said: “Man, that’s a lot of machinery and it doesn’t even put my seed into the ground.” Standing next to the farmer, Thurston vice-president Nick Jensen chuckled […] Read more
Name unimportant, as long as it works
FARGO, N.D. – The term strip tillage hadn’t been coined in 1988 when Joe Breker and his older brother Eugene stumbled across the technique for their zero till farm at Havana, North Dakota. The Brekers were some of the earliest pioneer no tillers in North America. Joe was one of the first presidents of the […] Read more
Demand for welders surges
Saskatchewan’s booming economy has led to a steep increase in the number of apprentice workers seeking certification in all trades. Rick Ewen, director of apprenticeship at the Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission, said the increase is “absolute unprecedented growth.” The total number of apprentices is near 8,500, he added, up from 5,100 three years […] Read more
RTK stretches across West
When real time kinematics guidance first became available on agricultural global positioning systems in the mid-1990s, the price tag was $50,000 to $70,000. It may have provided survey-grade accuracy, but the cost was prohibitive for prairie farmers. Since then, prices have edged slightly downward, but within the past year the cost of RTK dropped dramatically. […] Read more
Seeding implements seek guidance from sky
Where the tractor goes should be secondary to where the seeding implement goes. After all, says Marty Cook of AutoFarm, it’s what does the work. The tractor is simply there to provide pulling power. “Our next step in the evolution of machine guidance is to steer the seeding implement itself rather than steer the tractor,” […] Read more
New Products
New square balers New Holland has begun marketing its new series of square balers, the BC5000s. There are three different 14 x 18 square baler models plus a high-output 16 x 18 model. Drivelines have been beefed up on the BC5060, BC5070 and BC5080 models. Haydog spring mounts have been reinforced. The replaceable feeder floor […] Read more
Herbicide resistance common in West
Researchers say herbicide resistance is common to the vast majority of grain land on the Prairies. Since the mid-1990s, monitoring by provincial and federal agronomy staff has turned up weeds that are cross-resistant to Group 1 and Group 2 herbicides. From 1996 to 2006, 20 percent of wild oat samples screened were resistant to ACCase […] Read more
Dung far flung with new spreader
FARGO, N.D. – Twenty-eight cubic yards of feedlot manure weighs 28 tons. That’s the volume and weight the Degelman M28 manure spreader handles, spreading it across a 75 foot swath in 90 seconds. The typical feedlot custom cleaner takes the number 28 and multiplies it by the thousands each year. It’s a lot of material […] Read more
What’s big at Big Iron
Western Producer Winnipeg bureau staff writer Ron Lyseng attended the Big Iron Show in Fargo, North Dakota, to investigate what’s new in the field of farm equipment. Big Iron is mainly a show for dryland farm equipment, similar to the Western Canada Farm Progress Show in Regina and Red Deer’s Agri-Trade. Big Iron features the […] Read more
