It wasn’t the biggest new tractor roll-out at Agritechnica, but the Valtra S Series certainly attracted its fair share of attention thanks to a unique combination of size and technology. The Valtra S Series is a sixth generation tractor from the Finnish manufacturer, which operates plants in Finland and Brazil. Models range from 280 to… Read More
Category: Technology
There’s no timetable for its arrival, but when it does hit farm fields Steyr expects its hybrid CVT to pack a powerful punch. In this report from Agritechnica, RealAgriculture’s Bernard Tobin and CNH Industrial business manager Marco Otten discuss how Steyr plans to place significant power, speed and manoeuvrability at the tractor operator’s command. In… Read More
Last year at the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit, investors and inventors were all a-buzz about biologicals. This year, the spending mood at the conference was more subdued overall, with the focus shifted away from biological products and on to measuring carbon emissions. Jay Whetter, editor of Canola Digest and unofficial San Fransisco tour guide, attended… Read More
John Deere, Kinze Manufacturing, and Ag Leader Technology say they’ve reached a collaboration agreement that will make it easier for farmers to integrate their technology and equipment, while also ending a dispute over high-speed planter design patents. The agreement will allow farmers who run Kinze and Ag Leader planting and display products to “seamlessly integrate”… Read More
What’s going on in your grain bin? That’s the question GSI intends to answer with its new GrainVue system — technology it says will take the guesswork out of managing grain. From inside the grain bin, the technology provides up-to-date moisture and temperature data, as well as inventory levels. It also gathers and analyzes site… Read More
Approval of a biotechnology reform bill in the European Parliament last month has been hailed as a major breakthrough toward allowing “new genomic techniques,” such as gene-editing, to be used in crop breeding in Europe. The bill still faces an uphill battle to become law across the European Union, but the vote was one example… Read More
Precision Planting says it wants to create a new product category with its CornerStone planting system. “CornerStone really is everything but the planter bar,” says Caleb Schleder, Precision Planting’s director of technical services and support. At the Commodity Classic earlier this month in Houston, Texas, he shared how the company set out to build a… Read More
Before the invention of autonomous tractors all the intelligence needed to operate the machine and implements sat squarely in the tractor seat — the farmer controlled all aspects of the operation. In the case of tillage, for example, the farmer monitored the speed of the tractor and when the cultivator clogged they were there to… Read More
Precision Planting made its first venture into the sprayer technology market in North America in 2022 when it unveiled several products focused on improving sprayer operation and data collection. Fast forward to 2024 and Tremont, Illinois-based company is now forging into the European spraying market with its Symphony nozzle control system — designed to maintain constant… Read More
How does an on-farm biodigester and 2,200 beef cattle merge to make a farm more profitable and sustainable? On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Profitable Practices, Carl Frook shares how Frook Farms and Mar Creek Renewables have come together to help him manage manure, his cattle, his crops, and boost the bottom line for the family… Read More
Like many technological advances, drones have become more user-friendly, less expensive, and more useful over time. Drones – or UAVs – have several uses in agriculture, from scouting and checking cattle, to mapping, and more recently, seeding crops and even spraying. But drones are still a cost, require learning, and have limits in what they… Read More
As the possibilities of farming with autonomous tractors and implements gain traction, many manufacturers are working on how autonomous machinery will run efficiently without human hands and eyes as it travels on or through the ground. At Agritechnica, Lemken shared how its iQblue tool monitoring technology uses sensor systems to monitor performance as well as… Read More
Ag robotics company Naïo Technologies and Canadian track manufacturer CAMSO have announced a new research and development partnership focused on development of new work tools, boosting productivity and reducing environmental impacts. The agreement will span multiple years and includes factory technical testing and on-field trials with producers. This work aims to adapt tracks on agricultural… Read More
From closing the bale chute to kicking that last bale out of the baler, Case IH, with help from ISOBUS technology, now delivers a higher level of automated baler controls from inside the tractor cab. In this report from Agritechnica, CNH Industrial baler automation guru Gerd Gerdes shares some of the features North America farmers can… Read More
Drones are flying everywhere these days but farmers can’t use them to spray pesticides on their crops. It’s illegal to fly unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs) for applying crop protection products in Canada and it’s likely to stay that way for a couple of years. Why are drones still grounded for spray application? The answer is… Read More