Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 326 i Farms and Farm Machinery

About 15 high-horsepower tractors and air seeders from major manufacturers converged at Inverleigh, just outside Geelong in Victoria, for the Southern Farming Systems (SFS), on-farm seeder demonstration day earlier this year. The brand new New Holland Genesis T8 SmartTrax I am reviewing is the guest of honour. At the demonstration event, each seeder sows strips using the full length of the paddock to allow the SFS group led by projects coordinator Paul Breust to harvest and collect yield data on each one. SFS also measures establishment, seed depth, early dry matter production via unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), head counts and final yields. Results are used to declare the best performing seeder. Horwood Bagshaw, Amazone, Great Plains, Flexi-Coil, John Deere, Väderstad, Boss Agriculture, Semeato, Serafin, Seed…

The new Branson F42R offers the best value for money in its class, according to Scott Spring-Brown, the director of the brand’s Queensland based distributor Midway Sales. “A 40hp [29.8kW] compact tractor is a popular size for all round performance with many of our customers and when they drive the Branson they can feel the difference,” he says. It features a true flat deck for easy access to the high back, and a wide operator’s seat which provides optimum comfort. The Branson F42R is a four-wheel drive machine and is equipped with a dual power direction, hydrostatic steering cylinder. “They do not use a steering drag link, thereby enabling tight turns and low steering effort,” Spring-Brown says. “Elimination of the drag link provides uniform front tyre wear and much easier…

The award-winning Axial Throw Flatrac was designed and manufactured in Australia by Victoria-based TPOS Fabrications. An independent panel of judges decided the winner based on several criteria including the machine’s purpose and suitability, scope of application, construction ease of maintenance, ease of operation, availability of parts and overall value for money. The award was presented during the opening ceremony of the annual Henty Machinery Field Days on September 22. Henty Machine of the Year chairman Matt Bergmeier says the Flatrac catered for the growing market of controlled traffic. “More and more farmers are going that way and it used a different way of not disturbing the soil on either side of the disc where it scrapes in the mound and levels it,” he says. “It was well built, simply designed…

This year, a record number of 870 exhibitors signed up to showcase their products at the 2015 Henty Machinery Field Days, and a whopping 70,000 visitors streamed through the gates of what organisers claim is southern Australia’s single largest open-air agricultural event. The show ran from September 22 to 24. According to the organisers, a number of factors contributed to the event’s huge success this year, including widespread rain, fine weather, bumper crops, high commodity prices and the fact it coincided with school holidays. Henty Machinery Field Days CEO Belinda Anderson says the show is “not your typical event”. “We’re a community-based organisation so we listen to what people want because we have feet on the ground in lots of communities,” she says. “We need to be very aware of…

The Tractor and Machinery Association of Australia (TMA) Award recognises the best new Australian designed and built agricultural machine and was judged by Henty Machinery Field Days directors. It was presented by TMA member Scott Maxwell and Henty Machine of the Year chairman Matt Bergmeier to K-Line Agriculture national sales manager Bill Larsen on September 24. “It is a credit to our design team and Australian farmers buying out machines to win the TMA Award,” Larsen says. “We have sold one machine and have a lot of good, strong quotes out there.” According to K-Line, its new Speedtiller Powerflex is the only Australian built compact disc tillage machine. Larsen says the Powerflex took two years of fine-tuning, and is a direct response to rollers clogging in wet, sticky soils. “The…

Gleaner says the key features of its S88 combine harvester include a lighter weight, simpler design, reduced fuel consumption and a brand new transmission. Agco combine product manager Shane Jardine says Gleaner has designed the S88 combine platform so that all functional areas of the machine deliver optimum performance and efficiency. “We’ve created a lightweight, nimble combine whose horsepower is used to efficiently cut and thresh the crop, not to move a heavy machine or overly complex system through the field,” he says. Powered by a fuel efficient 9.8-litre Agco Power engine offering 430hp (321kW), the S88 features a one-piece welded mainframe with a low centre of gravity and true centreline design. Gleaner says this provides the “lightest and most balanced weight distribution combine in the world”, and claims the…

Finding a machine that fits into a role comfortably isn’t always an easy task, and operator acceptance plays a big part. Take telehandlers for example. There’s a huge range of machines on the market now, so many that it can be hard to know which one suits yours needs the best. They all appear to be competent at their given tasks but such is the materials handling landscape that they can be used for anything from construction, to logistics, to agricultural roles and general materials handling. COMPROMISE There can be an element of compromise involved in a one-size-fits-all machine. So it comes as no surprise that over recent years manufacturers have been increasingly tailoring their already versatile machines for specific roles. Traditionally the jack of all trades telehandler had a…

John Deere’s new L300 series of square balers features two models — the L330 and L340. “We’ve been working for years to develop a large square baler that will meet the tough demands of our commercial hay customers,” product line manager Jeremy Unruh from Ottumwa Works in the United States says. “Now we’re very pleased to launch the new L series square balers with high-capacity rotor to offer more efficiency, capacity and performance to commercial hay producers in our key markets.” The balers are designed with two pick-up widths: 2.1m for the L330 and 2.3m for the L340, Unruh says. They feature a heavy-duty drivetrain with a 45-stroke-per-minute gearbox to transfer power to other components. The L330 is capable of producing square bales with a height of 90cm and a…