Five of the top 50 agricultural innovations from the past year, as determined by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), are from the Canadian Prairies.
Each year the ASABE selects an expert panel to evaluate new products, processes and services designed to serve agriculture.
Eligible entries include products that entered the market in 2007 from various-sized companies.
Each entry must be principally for the production, processing, research, storage, packaging or transportation of agriculture and food products.
ASABE officials say winning entries must apply new technology or find innovative ways using older technology. The expert panel then selects the 50 that best meet those goals.
The Canadian winners, announced June 30 in Providence, Rhode Island, were: Winnipeg’s MacDon R80 Rotary four metre wide, disk forage mower; Bourgault Industries of St. Brieux, Sask., for the 6700ST air seeder cart; Schulte Industries of Englefield, Sask., for its FX-742, 14 metre wide crop residue mower; and Seed Hawk of Langbank, Sask., for two products – the model 400 Plus air seeder cart and a 28 metre wide single pass air drill.
