Equipment

Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) has entered a multi-national allied distribution agreement with 360 Yield Center to sell and support 360 Y-DROP and 360 UNDERCOVER application products through the John Deere dealer channel in the U.S. and Canada.

“This innovative application technology from 360 Yield Center,” says John May, president, agricultural solutions and chief information officer, John Deere, “helps to improve timing and placement of nutrients with John Deere and Hagie application equipment, including self-propelled sprayers and toolbars. John Deere dealers will be able to provide sales and service support for these application products to help producers apply in-season nitrogen and plant health products where and when it’s needed.”

With the recent announcement by Deere of the joint venture with Hagie Manufacturing to sell and service Hagie high-clearance sprayers, the distribution agreement with 360 Yield Center will bring more alignment and innovative technology to the Deere and Hagie sprayer line-up.

“Demand for the 360 Yield Center nitrogen utilization products is tremendous.… Continue reading

For model year 2017, John Deere T670 model walker combines will have significant enhancements to boost productivity, threshing capacity, and straw quality for baling while making service and maintenance much easier and less time consuming. These are all benefits that U.S. and Canadian small grain producers will appreciate when it comes to harvesting during often tight windows and tough conditions.

According to Terry DeMay, senior marketing representative for John Deere Harvester Works, the newly updated T670 Combine will lead the industry with several new features, helping to make it the most productive walker combine available.

“The new model year T670 combine has one of the largest active separation areas and largest cleaning shoe of any walker combine on the market today,” says DeMay. “We’ve increased productivity by 15 percent in wheat and increased unloading rates by 50 percent. We’ve also made it easier to switch between small grains and canola, and improved the service points to allow producers to spend more time harvesting and less time waiting.”… Continue reading

Nearly 16 years ago, John Deere changed farming when it introduced the StarFire guidance system. Improvements were made in the following years with StarFire iTC and StarFire 3000 receivers. Now, the company takes satellite-based guidance to even higher levels of accuracy, repeatability and signal pull-in speed with the introduction of the StarFire 6000 receiver and SF3 signal.

According to Mike Moeller, John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group, the new StarFire 6000 receiver has been designed to give customers greater precision capabilities, accuracy and uptime. “The StarFire 6000 Receiver offers a full range of differential correction levels, from the base SF1 satellite-delivered signal to the premium RTK option,” Moeller explains. “And to optimize the performance of the StarFire 6000 receiver, we’re offering the all-new SF3 correction level, which delivers 40 percent greater pass-to-pass accuracy, new in-season repeatability and 66 percent faster pull-in time than the previous SF2 correction level.”

With the combination of the StarFire 6000 Receiver and SF3 signal, customers can get RTK-like accuracy without having to invest in an RTK system, or if they are operating in fields without an RTK network.… Continue reading

It was more of the same in May for U.S. retail sales of ag tractors and combines, with under 40HP tractors leading the way and sales of larger tractors and combines continuing to lag, according to data from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), the leading trade organization for off-road equipment manufacturers and suppliers.

U.S retail sales of farm tractors under 40HP were up 9.4 percent in May 2016 compared to the same time period last year, and up 15.5 percent January through May. For 2WD tractors 40-100HP, sales were up slightly for May compared to last year – plus 1.4 percent,  and year-to-date are tracking at minus 2.1 percent.

May sales of 2WD 100+HP tractors in the U.S. declined 3.5 percent, with year-to-date sales down 24.3 percent, while 4WD tractors dropped 26.1 percent year-over-year and dipped 30.6 percent year-to-date.

Combine sales declined 40.2 percent year-over-year for May but for January through May dropped 28.8 percent compared to 2015 year-to-date sales.… Continue reading

Company introduces more rugged, comfortable, high-volume variable-rate applicator

To help ag service providers and large-scale producers apply fertilizer and lime to more acres per day during short, busy application seasons, John Deere introduces the F4365 High Capacity Nutrient Applicator.

This new machine offers increased capacity with a 330-cubic foot New Leader dry spinner spreader that can apply fertilizer at rates up to 1,100 lbs. per acre and lime at rates up to 6,600 lbs. per acre. Another important feature is the machine’s ability to variable-rate apply up to four different products during a single pass, with spreader widths of 60 to 90 feet.

The F4365 High Capacity Nutrient Applicator is powered by a John Deere PowerTech™ PSS 9L engine and features an IVT transmission. These machines integrate the latest in technology, including a new Generation 4 CommandCenter™ Display with SpreadStar™, AutoTrac™, and Section Control at your fingertips.

These machines are also equipped with JDLink™ Connect with Service Advisor Remote and Wireless Data Transfer to connect your fleet.… Continue reading

Small grains and oil seed producers can now plant more acres quickly and accurately with the introduction of the 76-foot. 1870 Air Hoe Drill from John Deere. This latest addition to the 1870 Air Seeder lineup, which includes 40-foot and 56-foot models, incorporates many new industry-leading features designed to improve seed and fertilizer placement and increase productivity.

John Peters, marketing manager for the John Deere Seeding Group, says this wider air seeder integrates the latest in precision placement, depth and pressure control, and other enhancements into one of the most rugged, dynamic air seeders on the market today.

“The new 76-foot model 1870 offers a time-saving 36 percent increase in seeding width, better residue flow capabilities, and improved seeding and fertilizer placement and control. Also, with the new retractable openers for easier servicing and improved transport, customers will gain more productivity when seeding small grains and oil seeds,” Peters explains. “When combined with a John Deere air cart and used on rolling, undulating terrain, this is one of the most accurate, productive air seeding systems available.”… Continue reading

Scale-Tec is excited to offer an iOS App designed to integrate with Digi-Star scale systems and a Bluetooth device for collecting and organizing grain cart yield data directly out of the field.

The new Scale-Tec system called “REAP” is designed to connect to any Digi-Star scale system 2011 and newer with an available serial port connector. The REAP app is designed to facilitate long range wireless Bluetooth connectivity to the indicator, further enhancing the capabilities of the scale system already in place. The REAP app is designed specifically for grain cart applications and is further enhanced by the Digi-Star Autolog capabilities.

Users of the REAP app will be able to program an unlimited number of growers, farms, and fields to keep track of grain harvested. Integration of the new Digi-Star GT560 and moisture sensor will allow the user to directly convert their grain cart weight to dry bushel. Producers will also be able to inventory their storage capacities and deliveries as well as keep a record of truck loads being taken directly out of the field.… Continue reading

Two new AutoTrac products are available to help row crop producers and ag service providers more accurately navigate row-crop fields when making postemergence sprayer applications.

AutoTrac Vision utilizes a single-lens camera to detect crop rows and help steer the sprayer down the center of the row for early postemergence applications. AutoTrac RowSense uses a row sensor similar to that used on combines to detect crop rows and steer the sprayer to the center of the row for later season post applications.

Doug Felter, product marketing manager for John Deere, says the introduction of these two new AutoTrac guidance products is designed to help large-scale row-crop producers and ag service providers work more quickly, cover more acres and reduce run-over damage to crops when spraying in the fields.

“Because of field terrain, planter drift, or irregular planting without guidance, spraying in row crops can present challenges for sprayer operators making post emerge applications,” Felter explains.… Continue reading

Bane-Welker Equipment, LLC was recently recognized as the large business of the year at the 2016 Crawfordsville/Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner.

The nearly 50 year-old company is planning a special 50 year celebration which will kick off in January of 2017.

“Getting the award is an honor,” said Phil Bane, CEO of Bane-Welker Equipment.  “Our family worked very hard to start this business and we continue to work very hard to stay current with the ever-changing technologies and environment within the ag industry.  We have terrific employees who share our ideals and we are very proud of what we have been able to accomplish for our customers.”

Bane-Welker Equipment is an agriculture equipment company representing Case IH and other complimentary brands.  Bane-Welker offers new and used equipment, parts, sales, service, precision farming, and customer support.  The 49-year-old company operates 10 stores in Indiana including Crawfordsville, La Crosse, Lebanon, Remington, Terre Haute, Pendleton, Plymouth, Winamac, and Wingate, and three stores in Ohio, including Eaton, Wilmington and Georgetown.… Continue reading

Apple Farm Service, Inc., with locations in Covington, Mechanicsburg  and Botkins has been named to New Holland’s exclusive President’s Club, the highest honor New Holland bestows on a dealership. The award recognizes superior service to customers, as well as excellence and continuous improvement in business performance.

New Holland President’s Club Award winners achieved the highest levels in excellence in six categories in the company’s onPoint! Dealer Standards program: service, business management, sales, marketing and customer focus, parts and facilities.

“By earning this award, Apple Farm Service has met New Holland’s highest standards for dealerships, an assurance to customers of excellence in business practices,” said Bret Lieberman, New Holland Vice President, North America. “President’s Club award winners have worked very hard to deliver exceptional service and support to their customers. We’re very proud to present this type of recognition to the best of the best.”… Continue reading

The Ag Data Space continues to be disruptive with long-standing and new companies coming to market with a variety of what is called digital platforms and tools.

The term Big Data continues to be a term that garners attention in the press. Big Data itself can be defined as data whose scale, diversity, and complexity require new architecture, techniques, algorithms, and analytics to manage it and extract value and hidden knowledge from it. There are many descriptive terms to make up this definition, but simply consider Big Data as the aggregation of data then employing new analyses or queries to bring innovative learning. Big Data can exist with private (e.g. farm data), public (most notably government data such as USDA data layers), or a combination of both. The goal in agriculture is to use data to ultimately drive decisions and profitability at the farm.

“Digital Agriculture” is the new term within agriculture having four components: precision agriculture, prescriptive agriculture, enterprise agriculture and big data.… Continue reading

AGCO Corporation, a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of agricultural equipment and solutions, today announced that it has teamed up with iMaps to implement QlikView, the business intelligence and visualization software. As a large global business with multiple brands and numerous international locations, AGCO was looking for a unique solution to integrate and analyze a huge amount of complex data from many different sources inside and outside the company in order to better drive business. AGCO is one of the first agricultural companies to embrace data-driven solutions to move the industry forward.

Eric Lescourret, AGCO Director, Advanced Technology Solutions & commercial strategic initiatives, North America said, “QlikView allows AGCO to integrate and unify our 20+ data sources for a complete overview and to centrally evaluate all of that critical data. We can now seamlessly build the tools we need to analyze and visualize information. AGCO can now be more proactive and predictive and make better-informed decisions, quickly.”… Continue reading

Fennig Equipment announced an addition to their FE4R Highboy Application line of seeding/fertilizer products.

Effective in May, the FE4R Highboy Application System is now available for the Miller/New Holland Line of High Clearance Sprayers.

“In the past we were strictly adaptable to Hagie STS Models and due to the popularity and demand for other models as well, we knew we had to make our system as universal as possible,” said Gary Fennig, President of Fennig Equipment.

The FE4R system boasts a 145 cubic foot poly tank which replaces the factory liquid tank. Product is then dispersed via hydraulic fan throughout the 90-foot boom to inter-seed cover crops, urea, and even products such as pelletized chicken litter. The Fennig Equipment FE4R Highboy Application System is currently available for June-August delivery.

Visit www.fennigequipment.com for more information or call 419-953-8500.… Continue reading

New cellular RTK correction signal improves ability to stay connected in challenging terrain

John Deere has expanded its RTK differential correction offerings with the introduction of John Deere Mobile RTK Signal. This latest innovation in machine guidance and telematics from John Deere delivers repeatable RTK accuracy to a machine via a cellular connection to accurately and reliably guide precise field operations.

“Machines equipped with a StarFire 3000 receiver and JDLink Connect-enabled Modular Telematics Gateway can now connect to a central server to receive the Mobile RTK Signal correction from a number of established networked RTK base stations,” explains Jarred Karnei, product marketing manager for John Deere.

As part of the John Deere Mobile RTK Network, which is supported by Leica Geosystems, the cellular RTK Signal correction eliminates the line-of-sight requirement to a single base station. For operators in the field, this means improved operational accuracy and connection reliability when working in hilly or mountainous terrain or in areas with significant tree cover, which can interrupt radio RTK signal connections.… Continue reading

To ensure the safest, most efficient planting season possible, tuning up farm machinery can be as important as scouting for weeds, tilling the soil or other spring field operations, a Purdue Extension specialist says.

Robert Stwalley, assistant clinical professor of agricultural and biological engineering, urged producers to get a jump start on vehicle maintenance.

“Early preparation for spring planting is time well-invested,” he said. “Instead of wishing for sunnier days and warmer weather, the wise farmer uses the gray and cold times to be ready to hit the fields running when the seasons change.”

Well maintained equipment is also much safer than equipment in disrepair. Stwalley offered these tips for keeping farm machinery in good working order:

• Clean the equipment: Wash machinery thoroughly with soap and water to remove dirt, chemical build-up, excess grease and plant material. Stwalley noted that some experts even recommend washing machinery between operations in different fields to reduce the chance of chemical or biological contamination from one field to the next.… Continue reading

Deere & Company has entered a joint venture with Hagie Manufacturing, the U.S. market leader in high-clearance sprayers. In the agreement, Deere acquires majority ownership of Hagie Manufacturing, which will continue producing sprayers in its current Clarion, Iowa location.

Equipment made by the joint venture will continue to carry the Hagie brand while sales and service for Hagie equipment will be integrated into Deere’s global distribution channel over the next 15 months.

“Hagie Manufacturing is known for innovation and its strong customer understanding in high-clearance spraying equipment,” said John May, president, Agricultural Solutions and Chief Information Officer at Deere. “High-clearance spraying equipment is a new market for Deere. The expertise at Hagie allows John Deere to immediately serve customers who need precision solutions that extend their window for applying nutrients.”

Alan Hagie, chief executive officer at Hagie Manufacturing, said, “We have great products at Hagie that help producers be more profitable but we need a business model that helps us reach more customers.… Continue reading

Unverferth Manufacturing Co., Inc. announces the addition of a 60’ boom for its Top Air ATV sprayer for greater crop-spraying productivity.

The new self-leveling 60’ boom features three-dimensional steel construction for maximum durability and front-folding design for compact transport.  The tool-free height-adjustable boom allows ground spraying clearance from 12” to 30”.  Outer wing sections feature a breakaway design for added protection and touchdown wheels to assist in boom clearance in uneven field conditions.

The Top Air ATV sprayer features 200-gallon tank capacity, width-and length-adjustable axle design, cushioned tongue for operator comfort and durable powder-coat finish to resist corrosion. It’s also available with a 45-foot boom.

The Top Air ATV sprayer also features a nine-gallon clean-water tank with storage container for added operator safety.  Its centrifugal spray pump is powered by a 5.5 HP Honda gas engine for reliable operation.

It performs like a full-size sprayer with features including tank agitation for proper chemical suspension, highly visible tank volume indicator, three-section boom with electronic ball valves,15” or 20” tip spacings and electronic rate controller.… Continue reading