Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 345 i Farms and Farm Machinery

John Deere has launched the C850 air cart, which is 55 per cent larger than the company’s previous models. The company says the new cart’s carrying capacity of 850 bushels provides an ideal match between cart capacity and infield performance when paired with 9R series tractors and John Deere’s air drills. John Deere seeding product marketing manager Ryan Hough says anyone looking to purchase a C850 can expect reduced cost of operation and enhanced uptime. “Producers will see industry-leading total product delivery from AirPower 2 – standard equipment on the C850,” he says. “Integrated tank scales are included, and a five-pivot hydraulic wireless conveyance is capable of delivering 100 bushels (3524 litres) per minute to fill all tanks from a single positioning of the cart and truck. “Every additional bushel…

Amazone has released its new EasySet operating system for its ZA-V series of linkage-mounted spreaders. The ZA-V series spreaders are available in a number of different hopper sizes and configurations from 1700 to 4200 litres. Amazone claims that the new EasySet operating system will deliver “precision spreading operations at the touch of a button”. Amazone product manager Craig Hopkins says that the introduction of the new operating system to the ZA-V series means customers will get all the precision of Amazone’s top-of-the-line ZA-TS and ZG-TS spreaders, but in a more compact size. “The ZA-V series builds on more than 50 years of leadership in twin-disc centrifugal spreading technology,” Hopkins says. “With a maximum discharge rate of 385kg/minute, working widths of 10m to 36m, and operational speeds of up to 30…

Gehl has launched the 750 articulated wheel loader – the company’s largest model – in Australia and New Zealand. Gehl says that, at 55kW, the 750 represents the company’s expansion into the 40-60kW size class. That power comes from a Tier 4 Deutz diesel engine which uses a diesel oxidation catalyst after-treatment system, meaning users can choose their preferred emissions system. Being an articulated loader, the 750 can turn at angles up to 45 degrees and oscillate up to 10 degrees thanks to a heavy-duty articulation joint. The bucket and tyres follow a constant turning radius so the rear tyres follow the path of the front tyres. An open ROPS canopy is standard on the 750, with a complete cabin enclosure also available. The operator is positioned above the load,…

German manufacturer Liebherr has added two new rough-terrain cranes to its product portfolio and revealed them at CONEXPO-CON/AGG in Las Vegas last month. The rough-terrain LRT 1090-2.1 and LRT 1100-2.1 cranes sit in the 90-tonne and 100-tonne segments,. Liebherr says safety was one of the main priorities when designing the new LRT cranes. As a result, they feature an outrigger monitoring system as standard. This system allows the support status of tyres or outriggers to be detected automatically and saved to the crane controller. The LRT 1090-2.1 (pictured) and LRT 1100-2.1 cranes are also the first mobile cranes Liebherr has released that meet global safety standards and comply with all global regulations, including Australian standards. The new cranes feature Liebherr’s variable support base (VarioBase) as standard. The company says this…

You wouldn’t know from looking at it, but the Nissan Navara has just been updated. It’s lost the NP300 badge and it’s also copped a suspension tweak. A hose-out, work-focused SL variant has been added to the lineup and sits below the ST model. The SL shuns the bling of higher-spec variants and offers a basic dual cab on 16-inch steel wheels yet still uses the higher-output 140kW/450Nm twin-turbo incarnation of the 2.3-litre diesel donk. Other work-spec Navara 4x4 models use a leaf-spring rear and the 120kW/403Nm single-turbo engine. Dual-cab 4x4 payloads range from 941kg for auto ST-X models to 1147kg for manual RX models. Braked towing remains at 3500kg. This is a much-needed upgrade as the NP300’s suspension was a bit disappointing. There was a lot riding on the…

Quick Search To find these products online, go to TradeFarmMachinery.com.au and enter the TA or DIY code shown below in the Keyword search panel. JOHN DEERE 2010 1962 model, good & sound tractor, starts easily and runs well. Very tidy. Owner’s manual, 2WD, 3PL remotes P.STR, new seat. No rust 64HP with 6938 hours. Suit collector VIC 03 8373 7194 $8.800 MASSEY FERGUSON 373 4WD 62Hp tractor with ROPS and canopy, three point linkage, PTO, remotes, synchro transmission, Pearson front end loader with bucket. NSW 02 8279 7079 $25,000 2003 KUBOTA M5700 ROPS tractor. Great condition, only 337 hours and been garaged entire life. 57hp engine, hydraulic fwd/reverse shuttle, 8 forward and 4 reverse gears, 4WD, 3-point linkage with 540rpm PTO VIC 03 8547 8371 $25,900 CASE IH FARMALL 60B…

Sales of agricultural equipment in Australia are now comfortably topping the $1 billion mark on an annual basis, and February saw the continuation of what promises to be another landmark year. Tractor sales for the month of February fell just short of the 1000-unit mark in what was a particularly bright month for the southern states in the under 40hp category. Sales of tractors in this category are 30 per cent up on the same time last year as the effect of some aggressive sales campaigns become realised. Low (often zero) interest rates combined with the release of many new models from the larger makers have been well received in Victoria, up 14 per cent on the same time last year; South Australia, which is up a whopping 42 percent…

Quick Search To find these products online, go to TradeFarmMachinery.com.au and enter the TA or DIY code shown below in the Keyword search panel. POLARIS UTE 570 Dump Box with 180kg Capacity. Built for Australia with heavy duty features: Driveshaft spline seals, sealed ball joints and sealed suspension bushings. Engine braking system, 4-wheel descent control (4WDC) + more NSW 02 6297 2833 $10,995 CF MOTO X400 LE Canadian CVTech transmission, independent front and rear suspension, hydraulic disc brakes with braided brake lines and a tow package. The X400 LE is loaded with extra features such as handguards, electronic power steering & more. QLD 07 3073 8162 $6,990 2009 YAMAHA GRIZZLY 350 2X4 YFM350A Full service and new tyres fitted. NSW 02 4862 1600 $4,990 2016 ELSTAR EURO200 200CC GY6, CVT…

Corowa-based irrigation manufacturer Upton has introduced its newest range of Australian-designed and built Linear Move irrigators. The new irrigators are offered as either a low-profile variant which gives a crop clearance height of 1.8 metres, or as a higher-clearance version which gives an under-pipe clearance of 3.2 metres. The irrigators will be available with a number of different options, including a hose drag water feed or a self-contained and carried pump system that will access a parallel channel feed water supply system. In addition, the Aussie irrigators are designed to be towable from one watering position to the next and are also capable of pivoting if required. Upton designer and builder Paul Upton says he has made extensive use of non-corroding materials including high-grade aluminium and stainless steel pipe work.…

Case IH has released new large square balers specifically designed for the toughest crops and most challenging conditions Australia has to offer. Based on the Case IH LB434 units, the new balers are designated LB434 XL and will consist of two models – the LB434S XL (standard) and LB434R XL (rotor cut). The new models retain current features of the LB434 model while introducing new features aimed at increasing efficiency and economy. These include an 80cm (31 per cent) longer bale chamber, wider panel widths to reduce material accumulation behind twine boxes, upgraded platform and hand railings, and a new active bale eject system. They retain 48 plunger strokes per minute, wide pick-ups and six double-tie knotters. “It all adds up to a unit perfectly designed for large-scale hay and…

Located only an hour away from Melbourne in the town of Catani in south-east Gippsland, this 36-hectare (88-acre) property is currently operating as a highly successful strawberry-growing business. The farm, which is only a 10-minute drive off the M1 freeway, is, according to the agent, “a golden opportunity to acquire a well-presented and professional market garden with everything in one place”. The strawberry crops are currently in full production and offer the prospective buyer a lucrative opportunity to walk straight into a profitable and highly functioning business, he says. In addition, there is scope to expand the farm’s enterprise to include other forms of produce, including crops such as fruits, vegetables and flowers. The property also has the distinct advantage of having peat soil, accompanied by extensive drainage, a massive…

Nine models from the new JCB QS range of mobile generators built to withstand the harshest environments will be making their way to the Australian market. The new models are driven by JCB diesel engines that have been tested in around 200,000 machines across the globe. “Each model has three-stage fuel filters and an optional self-cleaning air filter to protect the engine from premature wear,” JCB Construction Equipment Australia (JCB CEA) national product manager Dave Moselen says. “The whole range has been tested and operated to withstand temperatures over 50 degrees Celsius so they can provide non-stop power and performance no matter where they are installed,” he says. The generators are encased in a steel canopy incorporating a single-piece roof that has been dipped in phosphate and given a seven-stage…

Could farming practices that focus on soil health make food more nutritious? A recent review on fruits says yes. The next time you bite into an apple, spare a thought for the soils that helped to produce it. Soils play a vital role, not just in an apple’s growth, but in our own health too. The formation of soil, pedogenesis, is a very slow process. Creating one millimetre of soil coverage can take anything from a few years to an entire millennium. But with soils around the world under threat, we’re in danger of losing their health benefits faster than they are replaced. HEALTHY SOILS A healthy soil is a living ecosystem in which dead organic matter forms the base of a food web consisting of microscopic and larger organisms.…

Despite being part of a generation that has grown up with technology as part of farm machinery, I am still staggered by the amount of useable information available from today’s technology packages – particularly when I discover technology that not only increases the efficiency of a machine but also of a whole operation. A recent trip to Canterbury, New Zealand, allowed me to spend a day checking out the Bredal F8 precision fertiliser spreader, kitted out with Topcon’s X30 GPS system and nitrogen sensors. The machine is being used by farm manager Mark McCully, who is responsible for more than 1000 hectares of arable land. He is passionate about utilising this level of technology to take advantage of the yield potential of each paddock on the farm. This is achieved…

The Honda CTX200 has a very low, creepy crawly first gear which is ideal for following a herd without startling them We watched – and almost offered to help – as technical editor Tom Dickson unloaded the Honda CTX200 motorbike from the trailer hooked onto his car. For a ‘farm-spec’ bike, it didn’t look incredibly agricultural. In fact, it almost looked sporty. We were outside the sheds at John Anderson’s dairy farm just east of Warrnambool. This was to be the staging ground for a Farms and Farm Machinery rarity – an off-road bike review. That’s right, two wheels. The Honda CTX200, also known as a Bushlander, was on loan to us from Roe Motorcycle and Mower in Warrnambool. It’s a fairly basic bike, with a 197cc single-cylinder engine that…

Complementing the Aussie-friendly build quality is WHM’s decision to stay with simple heavy engineering so local remote servicing is feasible. WHM has over-engineered its new K Series tractors to increase reliability and longevity in Australian conditions “If we protect our customers we all have a future,” WHM Tractors owner Gary Lynch says. “In WHM’s case we do this by over-engineering while still retaining affordable pricing.” This means that the tractors in the family-owned company’s K Series are up to 1 tonne heavier, as sold, than many competing name-brand models. The K range is made up of the 67hp WHM 674/K, the 92hp WHM 924/K and the 102hp 1024/K. The standout features of the range are the large, class-leading third-generation aircon cabs. Lynch says that the teams at WHM Tractors –…

Polaris has unveiled the Ace 150 EFI youth vehicle, a single-seater ATV with a protective cab frame specifically designed for younger operators. The youth vehicle has been modelled around Polaris’s ACE vehicles, the only single-seat ATV-sized vehicles in the market with roll-over protection. Polaris says that this will give parents peace of mind and children aged 10 years and older “the single-seat freedom enjoyed by their adult counterparts”. “The ACE has been an outstanding success with Australian farmers and Polaris continues to innovate its youth line-up to provide a wide variety of fun options for kids with great safety technology,” Polaris Australia off-road vehicles country manager Alan Collins says. He says that the company’s range of youth models with a protective cage has, until now, been limited to the two-seat…

A unique concept pump that uses a noise cancellation system to reduce audio pollution levels was unveiled by Thompson Pump at the 2017 CONEXPO-CON/AGG show in Las Vegas last month. The Florida-based company says its Active Noise Cancellation system (ANC) “mitigates unwanted sound from diesel-driven pumps through the addition of a secondary sound (anti-sound) that is designed specifically to cancel out the primary one”. This is a concept familiar to anyone who has used noise-cancelling headphones – the system was invented by Bose and first applied to aviation headphones in the mid-1980s. “When you create a secondary sound wave with the same amplitude that has an inverted phase to the original sound, the waves combine, form a new wave, and effectively cancel each other out,” Thompson Pump engineering vice president…

After a long search for the right tractor, Victorian horse breeder and trainer Christopher Ardron is now running an Agrison 100hp CDF tractor for tasks like hoeing, slashing and moving bales. Ardron, who is also a dressage judge and horse classifier, has owned his 57-hectare (140-acre) farm in the town of Darraweit Guim in Victoria, about an hour north of Melbourne, since 2002. Although that’s over 15 years of ownership, it wasn’t until recently that he decided that he needed a tractor to help him out with everything he does on his property. “I wanted something that was overpowered for the work that I needed to do, so I was never worried about not having enough power to get the job done,” Ardron tells Farms & Farm Machinery on a…

Years ago, there was a definite reluctance to even look at Korean products but that is not the case anymore. With a little bit of research I quickly discovered that many of the major tractor manufacturers – including Case, John Deere and New Holland, to name a few – build some of their models in Korea or have some form of affiliation with the country. So the days of getting all high and mighty about where machinery is manufactured are gone. The world is becoming a much smaller place, with companies basing themselves wherever they can get the best return on investment. With that in mind, I was very interested to find out what the 100-percent-Korean-made Branson 6225Ch tractor had to offer. This 60hp, hydrostatic-drive cabin tractor features a 1500kg…

We’ve done nearly twice over a million bloody acres of regrowth since I’ve been in the game, and that was all done with Komatsu dozers Large and mid-sized bulldozers are important workhorses for western Queensland’s large properties, carrying out a range of tasks from land clearing, ripping and ploughing paddocks, to maintaining and forming roads and fence lines, grading yards, and general maintenance works. Among the dozers used is a Komatsu range with the unique ‘lockup torque converter’ transmission feature that is ideal for the frequent long, straight runs in hot and dusty conditions typical of the large station operations in western Queensland. At the push of a button, the transmission on Komatsu D65AX-16 through to D375A-6 dozers can be switched from manual or auto powershift operation, to manual or…

Suzuki has two 400cc KingQuads: the ASi auto and a FSi five-speed manual. Both are considered ‘midweights’ by current industry standards, which means they’re physically smaller than ‘full-size’ 500 and 750cc models and lighter by about 10kg. Is there an advantage in being smaller? Yeah, there is. A smaller quad bike is generally more manoeuvrable than a longer, heavier one, with or without power steering, and that helps if you’re working in heavily wooded terrain or constantly changing direction. This type of ATV is designed for moving around smaller properties where there’s less emphasis on speed, power and overall carrying capacity. But in an age of automatics, why would anyone want a manual? Easy. It comes down to price and complexity. Quads with manual transmissions and less bling are cheaper.…

FORD F-150 KING RANCH V8 Engine Dual overhead cam naturally aspirated 5-litre V8 Fuel Unleaded Power 288kW (385hp) Torque 525Nm @ 3850rpm Trans 6-speed Automatic Drive Part Time 4x4, 2-speed transfer case. Payload 850kg Towing 4000kg (braked) Warranty Four years/130,000km Price as tested $150,000 (plus on-roads) *Exchange rate dependent FORD F-150 KING RANCH ECOBOOST V6 Engine Dual overhead cam twin-turbo v6 Fuel Unleaded Power 272kW (365hp) Torque 570Nm @ 2,500rpm Trans 6-speed automatic Drive Part-time 4x4, 2-speed transfer case Payload 850kg Towing 4000kg (braked) Warranty Four years/130,000km Price as tested $153,000 (plus on-roads) *Exchange Rate Dependent Ford’s ‘EcoBoost’ badge doesn’t exactly conjure up flattering commentary with a lot of Aussie punters. For some it was the abomination (yet actually quite effective) 4-cylinder engine that was slotted…