Reading Time: 3 minutes If you’re frustrated that the big names in equipment manufacturing aren’t rolling out autonomous systems quickly enough, you may want to look a little closer to home. “With the clock ticking on when we’ll see autonomous farming become a commercial reality, my hope is that we’ll see Canadian manufacturers lead the way there,” said Leah […] Read more
Canada’s short line equipment makers on the cutting edge
These smaller manufacturers exported $1.8 billion of equipment and implements last year
Researcher offers ‘gospel’ to control clubroot before it spreads
If the infected area is small, mark it and give it special attention — which may even include hand-weeding
Reading Time: 3 minutes When the world’s top clubroot researchers gathered here earlier this month, a hot topic of discussion wasn’t cutting-edge science but an old-fashioned way of controlling a crop infestation — hand-pulling diseased plants. Once a field is heavily infested with clubroot spores, there’s virtually no economical way to deal with the infestation. But at the International […] Read more
Iron backlog has come and gone
It’s taken a few years, but dealers have finally whittled down high inventories of equipment
Reading Time: 3 minutes Two years ago, you couldn’t drive past an equipment dealership without noticing the rows upon rows of machines — carry-over of anticipated demand that never came. “In 2013 and 2014, everybody was firing on all cylinders,” said Leah Olson, president of the Agricultural Manufacturers of Canada. “With our record harvests, there was a fundamental shift […] Read more
Deere plans price increases to offset rising costs
Chicago | Reuters — Shares of Deere and Co. soared Friday after the U.S. tractor maker revised up its full-year earnings estimate on stronger equipment demand and shared its plans to increase prices to offset increased costs. The company’s stock was up 6.4 per cent at $156.24 in early afternoon trading on the New York […] Read more
Meet DOT: the self-driving power implement
A Saskatchewan-based company has developed an autonomous tractor — minus the tractor
Reading Time: 6 minutes Bigger doesn’t always mean better — but that’s been the story of farm machinery for decades. However, could the era of huge, hulking tractors and the big implements they pull be coming to an end? Norbert Beaujot thinks so, even though the founder of SeedMaster spent most of his career building some of those increasingly […] Read more
Are you ready to step out of the cab forever?
Special Report: Will farming make a u-turn? Those long, long hours seeding can be drudgery but watching fields being sown on a tablet is brand new territory
Reading Time: 3 minutes Autonomous farm equipment would not only radically change how crops are produced, but the lives of farmers themselves. Norbert Beaujot thinks they will embrace being freed from the tractor cab. “At one end of the scale you get the young, 35- to 40-year-old farmer who really wants to get going with anything new and high […] Read more
No internet, no problem, says DOT developer
Special Report: Will farming make a u-turn?
Reading Time: 2 minutes If you don’t have good internet, would the DOT platform work on your farm? No problem, said Owen Kinch, field research manager with SeedMaster, the developer of the driverless machine. A high-power, high-range Wi-Fi network comes as part of the DOT package, with SeedMaster essentially acting as the internet service provider, he said. “The user […] Read more
Deere upgrades 2018 outlook on improving equipment demand
Reuters — U.S. farm equipment maker Deere and Co. on Friday boosted its sales outlook for fiscal 2018, citing strengthening conditions in agricultural and construction markets, sending its shares higher. For the past four years, Deere has been battling weak demand for farm equipment as a global grain glut pushed down prices, sending U.S. farm […] Read more
Equipment firm Buhler’s year-end ledger improves
Improved sales in the North American market have helped push the 2017 results for Canadian farm equipment maker Buhler Industries back into the black. The Winnipeg-based company, which makes Versatile tractors and Farm King implements, on Friday booked year-end net income of about $500,000 on gross revenue of $312 million, up from a $2.7 million […] Read more
No prison for Saskatchewan rancher over stolen farm equipment
A western Saskatchewan rancher who pleaded guilty in August to charges over the discovery last year of missing tractors, balers and other farm equipment will serve time outside the prison system, Saskatoon media reported Friday. Iain Stables, now 40, was sentenced Friday in Provincial Court in Saskatoon to a conditional term of two years less […] Read more
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