Equipment

Proper tire maintenance on farm machinery and implements is important for improving efficiency, and now is the perfect time for farmers to look at maintaining or replacing tires, said a Purdue University agricultural engineer.

“Flat tires can cause a lot of downtime, so it’s important to do plenty of walk-arounds to check for wear and cracking-both on tractors and implements,” said Dennis Buckmaster, Purdue agricultural engineer. “Properly maintaining tires improves equipment efficiency and can mean less labor, fuel and tire wear.”

One way to ensure higher efficiency is to keep tires properly inflated, Buckmaster said.

“A common mistake is that farmers see the inflation pressure on the sidewall and think that is the proper tire inflation, but that’s actually not the case,” Buckmaster said. “Proper inflation is a function of the load on the tire. There are manuals and tables available on the Internet to help farmers calculate the best possible inflation based on tractor weight, what’s being pulled and the speed traveled.… Continue reading

Great Plains is proud to announce they are now offering the advanced Air-Pro meter system on all Yield-Pro planters. Air-Pro meters are pressurized air meters that take singulation and spacing accuracy a step beyond what is offered in the industry today.

“Great Plains has spent more than five years developing and testing the air pro metering system” said Tom Evans, vice president of sales and marketing at Great Plains. “We even ran our full-size proto-types an extra year to ensure that they were ready to provide farmers with the most accurate and reliable meters on the market.”

Airflow required for this system is provided by a single 8-inch hydraulic fan. The first priority is to maintain a consistent meter pressure, and it is regulated by the IntelliAG monitor. Air pressure not used to maintain consistent meter pressure is diverted to bulk seed delivery. This extremely efficient system requires only 9-gallons-a-minute hydraulic flow to operate the fan on a 16-row twin-row equipped planter.… Continue reading

AGCO Parts and Service announces a new electronic way for farmers to order the technical publications they need, including parts catalogs, operator manuals and repair manuals, and promises shipment in hardcopy paper format within 72 hours.

“This is an exciting addition to the way AGCO technical publications are ordered and distributed,” said Jason Marx, vice president, AGCO Parts Division, North America. “It includes all of AGCO’s current brands, AGCO, Challenger, Fendt, Massey Ferguson and Valtra, as well as heritage brands, where older publications in original printed form are difficult to get.”

Marx said AGCO has created new Web sites specifically dedicated to this new ordering and delivery process.

“Farmers can access our electronic ordering system through the corporate Web site www.AGCOcorp.com; the specific brand Web sites — such as Massey Ferguson, Challenger, Fendt and Valtra under the Parts & Service tabs; or through www.AGCOpubs.com,” said Kent Butler, director, North America Technical Services and Support.… Continue reading