Detroit | Reuters — General Motors will give its best-selling Chevrolet Silverado large pickup truck models a makeover next spring to fix competitive shortcomings that have left Chevy in third place in one of the most lucrative vehicle market segments in the world. Catching up with rival trucks from Stellantis NV and Ford Motor Co., […] Read more
GM’s pickup money machine gets a technology tuneup
Silverado ZR2 to appeal to extreme off-roading segment
GM to cut North American production, citing chip shortage
Both GM, Ford cutting truck production
Washington | Reuters — General Motors will reduce production at most North American assembly plants this month because of the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage, hitting its profitable truck and sport utility vehicles, it said Thursday. The largest U.S. automaker will halt production next week at its Fort Wayne plant in Indiana and its Silao plant […] Read more
Deere lifts 2021 forecast on solid equipment demand
Reuters — Deere and Co. on Friday raised its full-year earnings forecast after quarterly profit topped Wall Street estimates on the back of strong demand for farm and construction equipment. The world’s largest farm equipment manufacturer now expects net income in fiscal 2021 to be between $5.7 billion and $5.9 billion, up from a range […] Read more
Maersk signs first green methanol deal toward dropping fossil fuels
Copenhagen | Reuters — A.P. Moller-Maersk said on Wednesday it had signed a contract securing green methanol as the world’s largest shipping firm gears up to operate its first carbon-neutral ship in 2023. With about 90 per cent of world trade transported by sea, global shipping accounts for nearly three per cent of the world’s […] Read more
Giving it the old college try has a new meaning these days
Reading Time: 2 minutes Lakeland College and Lethbridge College have each received a major funding boost and the pair has also joined five of their provincial counterparts to create a new research alliance. Lakeland is getting $1 million in federal funding for smart agriculture technology. It will be used to construct a new Livestock Reproductive Technology Laboratory and boost […] Read more
Brandt to buy Deere dealership chain Cervus
Regina firm to pay $302 million in all-cash deal
The world’s biggest privately-owned chain of Deere construction and forestry equipment dealerships is set to expand its reach into Deere farm equipment in a major way. Brandt Tractor, the equipment sales arm of the Regina-based Brandt Group, on Monday announced an agreement to buy all of publicly-traded Cervus Equipment Corp. for $19.50 a share, valuing […] Read more
Deere, Bear Flag aim to automate tractors as ‘fast as possible’
Reuters – U.S. tractor maker Deere & Co said on Thursday it would buy tech startup Bear Flag Robotics for $250 million, with the goal of developing over the next year systems Deere can sell to allow farm tractors to operate without a human driver in the cab. “We are effectively in market with real […] Read more
U.S. FTC votes to make ‘right to repair’ a priority
Commission also drops 1995 merger policy
Washington | Reuters — The U.S Federal Trade Commission voted Wednesday to make it a priority to address the issue of manufacturers pushing consumers to use licensed dealers to repair items ranging from smartphones to farm equipment, a practice that critics call anti-competitive. The five commissioners, three Democrats and two Republicans, voted unanimously to approve […] Read more
Telus, Rabobank ag arms buy into farm data aggregator
Companies join in on deal for Minneapolis-based Conservis
The agriculture arms of one of Canada’s major telecoms providers and a major Dutch bank and financial services firm are taking a stake in a tech firm in the business of gathering on-farm data into a single window. Telus Agriculture and Rabo AgriFinance, which is headquartered in St. Louis and serves U.S. farm customers, announced […] Read more
Better grain bin sensors could put you in the combine a week earlier
The key to an earlier start is being able to successfully dry down higher-moisture grain, says expert
Reading Time: 4 minutes To some, new research on wireless sensors and automated fans for grain bins may seem like just another technical study. But there’s big stakes in play — an opportunity to move up harvest by a week or even two, says Chandra Singh. “When I joined Lethbridge College in 2019 there was a very early snow […] Read more