A long-awaited event took place this past week; and I'm not referring to groundhog day, although a rodent did play a part in the lead up to it. What happened that was so special? Electricity was finally restored to my workshop—for the second time since September.
Underground electrical service lines are great. You don't need to be on the lookout for them when moving machinery around. They're out of sight, out of mind. If, however, you're a burrowing gopher, that isn't exactly true. In August one of the gophers that had been living in our yard, and mildly annoying me, apparently chewed into the underground line leading to my workshop, shorting it out.
That left the shop out of service; no welder; no air compressor, not even any lights.
Gophers aren't the easiest things to get rid of when they're running around between machines, buildings and livestock. When they're in those surroundings, it's difficult to pick them off with my old .22; and you can't leave poison lying around the yard for dogs or cats to get into.
However, I did manage to selectively cull the herd over the course of the summer. Every now and again it was possible to shoot a few. But for the most part I chose to ignore them, go about my business and let them do the same. The cat pitched in and helped in the effort as well, catching one now and again. But by mid summer there were still some who continued to have the same postal code we do.
A workshop you couldn't work in was the price I paid for not paying attention to detail when it came to extermination efforts.
After six weeks of cajoling a local electrical contractor, a crew finally showed up to locate the break, dig up the line and repair it. The cost wasn't too bad, but every project I had on the go inside the shop had been put on hold through the nicest part of the summer. Those beautiful, mild, summer evenings when you have the urge to go out and be among your wrenches and work on projects went by as I watched reruns on TV.
But things did get back to normal—for a while, at least.
In late November, I strode into the shop and flipped on the light switch. I was two steps past it when I realized the electricity was out again. The lights slowly came up to a dull orange glow from a lack of voltage, just like the first time. Now with the cold weather on us, I couldn't even plug in the block heaters on the tractors.
It's hard to say if the the first repair failed or there were other problems somewhere else. After yet another delay—this time two months—a completely new service line was trenched in through the frozen ground. Today, the shop again has electricity, and I have yet another repair bill to pay.
In all, my shop was out of commission for more than three of the last 12 months. I'm going to spend more time hunting gophers this summer.
Scott
This past week I spent a couple of days wandering the aisles of the Manitoba Ag Days show in Brandon. After you've logged as many miles walking through machinery exhibits as I have, you become pretty tuned in to the subtleties. I find myself comparing not only the show to other machinery events, but also how the various exhibitors present themselves.
Even though Ag Days is far from being a giant among shows, it's big enough that making the trip to see it is a worthwhile effort. And it always seems to attract an interesting blend of exhibitors. That's good news for a machinery editor, like me, who is always on the lookout for something new and innovative.
Probably the biggest criticism anyone can offer about the show, itself, is the confusing floor plan. Even with a map, it's easy to get lost in the maze of hallways, barns and exhibition rooms. I feel like I should be rewarded with a piece of cheese when I successfully find the booth I'm looking for!
My first day at the show proved a little frustrating as I kept getting lost. Finding my way was even more difficult when the midday crowd swelled to the point everyone was bumping shoulders. But, eventually I got onto it.
If you arrive at the Keystone Centre—where Ag Days is held—anytime after mid morning, be prepared to park at the farthest reaches of the parking lot. You may even have to spend a little time searching for a space.
The most interesting comparison I find myself making, though, is with the presentation of the exhibitors' booths and how easy the representatives are to talk to. All the exhibitor companies have spent money to buy floorspace, haul their products to the show and man their booths; but not all seem to milk that investment for all its worth. I think many of the smaller companies come to find out just how specialized marketing skills are.
This is a situation most farmers can relate to. There is so much to know about running a business that it's impossible for one person to be good at every aspect of it. Farmers can't be professional mechanics, skilled equipment operators, agronomists, pesticide specialists and tax experts all at the same time. Just as it makes sense for them to hire experts to lend additional skills to a farming operation, many small manufacturers ought to think about doing the same with their businesses.
When I looked at some of the new equipment creations the small manufacturers were showing, it was clear there were some pretty inventive minds behind the designs. But often the person maning the company booth was acting as creator, engineer, owner and marketer, along with numerous other roles. Unfortunately, not all of these people were doing the marketing part very well; and that's what farm shows are all about.
You can't expect a small operation to be able to invest money in creating a splashy booth along the lines of those set up by the multinational corporations who also attend the show, but investing in help from someone who knows how to put the company's best foot forward and cause passers-by to stop and ask questions could be money well spent.
Some of the exhibitors who were clearly running mom-and-pop scale operations were a little shy and didn't seem to be making the best of the public interest they could attract. Subtle things like presenting body language that suggests they're willing to answer questions rather than hiding at the back of the booth seemed to be one thing that caused some people to just keep on walking rather than stop and chat.
Kevin LaFlamme, product manager for Rotary Lift, used his hobby as an Elvis impersonator to attract attention to his company's booth. It seemed to help break the ice, starting conversations and creating some buzz about his product.
As a member of the farm media, one of the things that always amazes me is when exhibitors don't seem interested in having their product featured in an article in a publication like Grainews. Many of these same firms have actually been spending money to buy advertising space in a variety of magazines; but when given the opportunity for some free publicity, they shy away from it.
If you're a manufacturer trying to market a product you believe in, be proud of it; and don't be afraid of having it featured in an article. The major brands spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to attract media attention to their products. They recognize the value of that kind of publicity.
Fledgling manufacturers need to recognize where their strengths are and where they could use some help. I bet those that do see it pay off in increased sales.
Scott
2011 was a remarkable year in the farm equipment sector, unlike any in recent memory. The number of new machines introduced to the market this year was more than impressive. John Deere held what it referred to as the largest introduction of new machinery in its 174-year history. AGCO described its new product launch as the largest in the history of the North American agricultural equipment industry.
And it wasn't just the major manufacturers that were rolling out new stuff at a breathtaking pace; it seemed nearly every company, large or small, had something new to show this year. At Agritechnica, the world's largest farm machinery show held in Hanover Germany, there were a record number of exhibitors this November, 2,748 to be exact. That meant the world's largest fairground was full to capacity to accomodate that much new iron.
Maybe I shouldn't say iron, because more than a little of what was new this year was electronic or just digital. Farming is moving into what in the 1960s would have been referred to as the space age. Maybe that description still fits. The S Series combines Deere introduced this year have more lines of software code than early versions of the space shuttle.
And robotics officially entered the picture this year. AGCO's Fendt line introduced Guide Connect, which allows an unmanned second tractor to follow along like a puppy behind one operated by a driver. John Deere's Machine Sync uses similar technology to automate on-the-go unloading from a combine. Case IH won an award at the SIMA machinery show in Paris early in the year for a similar system that isn't yet market ready. Then, there was Kinze's autonomous tractor project, which allows a tractor to pull a grain cart from combine to truck completely on its own.
Things have started moving fast with autonomous technology. And I suspect that pace will increase.
High-voltage electric drive is set to soon replace some hydraulic systems to improve efficiency. There were several machines shown at Agritechnica that demonstrated new electrical drive systems. AEF, the Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation, the industry group made up of many of the engineers involved in developing those new systems, recently added high-voltage to its list of working groups; and they're now in the process of establishing standards for the implementation of market-ready, high-voltage drives.
Now that the year is coming to an end, I've tallied up the travel stats involved with attending those product launches and shows in order to bring back the information on all this new development for the pages of Grainews. Here are the numbers. I've been on 22 connecting flights to, or through, four provinces, one territory, five U.S. states and across the Atlantic to Germany.
Hopefully, all that effort helped keep you in loop with what's going on in the farm machinery world.
Thanks for following along. And if there is a topic you'd like to see addressed in the magazine, or in this blog, don't hesitate to email me with your suggestions.
All the best for 2012, and merry Christmas.
Scott
As I stood at the local card lock fuelling station recently, a sign on the pump cautioned me that it would cut out when I'd loaded 300 litres, everyone's daily quota of diesel fuel these days. A couple of weeks ago someone had crossed out the previous 500 litre amount on the sign and wrote in the new, lower limit. Sadly, these notices have been around for a while; and although the overall situation has improved, things still aren't back to normal.
Standing there it occurred to me there's a disconnect in the Canadian petroleum industry these days. While Saskatchewan farmers and truckers resigned themselves to daily fuel rationing over the past few weeks, the main topic on the news has been the Canadian government and petroleum industry expressing their joint disappointment over the failure of the Keystone XL pipeline to get U.S. approval; it would have carried billions of litres of Alberta crude to Texas refineries at a discount compared to the world price for oil.
Something is wrong with this picture. As Canadians, western farmers are co-owners of all the oil sands crude that so many want to see end up in U.S. fuel tanks, yet we currently can't fill our own. Everyone from the Prime Minister to CEOs of banks have been lamenting the pipeline delay and possible cancellation, but there's been barely a peep from them about yet another western Canada diesel fuel shortage.
Yes, yet another. The topic has been on the radar for a few years now. For example, industry insiders suggest that had the harvest season two years ago not been slowed by wet weather, there was a risk some combines could have been sidelined with dry tanks.
I know that the cause of our latest fuel shortage may not be a lack of available crude oil to refine, but the optics of the whole situation makes the industry players and the government seem as though their attention is elsewhere. What if this situation was reversed and it was U.S. farmers and truckers who were going short while oil companies talked of nothing but boosting exports.
Could you image the ruckus? The public backlash would be enormous, and politicians would be lining up to publicly jump on oil companies. Here, not so much. Our politicians seem to be staying well out of the picture, and can you blame them? We diesel fuel consumers have been politely accepting the deprivation. I'm not sure why. This recurring problem has the potential to cause some serious financial harm. In fact, it already has, especially for trucking companies.
I think it's time for the industry and our elected representatives to address the problem. If those two groups want to profit from exporting Canada's natural resources—that means cash for oil companies and gaining the reputation governments seek as economic visionaries—the least they can do is guarantee there is enough refined product to meet local needs first.
Scott
With only a few hours left before the doors close for the final time on Agritechnica 2011, more than a few people were trying to squeeze in a final visit. The exhibition halls were busy, to say the least. Because it's Saturday, there were parents and kids almost everywhere.
With a journalist's press pass, though, I could avoid the crowds by coming in early and staying late each day in order to get unobstructed photographs of the machines on display. And that pass also allows access to the press centre, which offers amenities like workspace and internet access so we can do our jobs and get information out to you—no matter where you are.
The overall view of just one of the 24 display halls filled with new equipment and emerging technologies
Spending time in the press centre meant I was able to meet other writers from farm publications all across Europe. As one of only three Canadian journalists at the show (at least only three that I know of), a lot of people were eager to ask about our country and its agriculture industry. We spent a lot of time talking about the differences and similarities among farms and farming practices in various regions of the world.
To a large extent, the kind of information exchange we shared in the press room was also what the organizers of Agritechnica were trying to facilitate between equipment manufacturers and show visitors. They want this event to be the global meeting place for the exchange of information and ideas for everyone's benefit, not just a showplace for new machines. And those two purposes seem to mesh very nicely here.
In fact, it's impossible not to find yourself learning about how farming is done elsewhere simply by looking at the kinds of equipment on display and talking with the exhibitors about how and why farmers use them in various countries. Then, of coure, there are the exhibitors showing products that push the limits of current technology and give a glimpse of what the future holds. Information exchange seems to be happening here whether its planned or not.
I spoke to a few of the prairie manufacturers who are showing their equipment at the Canadian pavilions, and it's clear they're learning too. Getting feedback on their machinery from foreign farmers helps them assess not only demand for it in potential new markets, but it gives them a chance to assess other technologies, which may or may not work on implements intended for sale in Canada. That means many Canadian farmers could benefit from the dialogue at this show, even if they did come to it.
As Agritechnica has matured over the past decade, that global meeting place concept has solidified. “We could really sense an international feel to this year's Agritechnica,” said Dr. Reinhard Grandke, CEO of DLG, the show's organizer, at the closing press conference. “One of our missions is to become a platform for networking.”
I'd have to say mission accomplished.
This wraps up my second visit to an Agritechnica show—I was also here for the last one in 2009. Be sure to keep your eye on future issues of Grainews and Country Guide for detailed articles on this year's event.
If you enjoy looking at the latest and best in farm machinery and expanding your knowledge about the industry you earn your livelihood in, making the trans-Atlantic trip to see a future show could really be worth the effort. Agritechnica runs every second year, so the next one will take place in November, 2013.
Scott
Yesterday, I gave you a few stats on just how many exhibits were on site here at Agritechnica in Hanover Germany. But here's a little trivia on the facility itself—or the Hannover Messe, as it's known locally.
Hanover is in the northern region of Germany and the Messe (fair grounds) is located on the south side of the city. Covering a total of 91 acres, the Messe has 24 halls offering a total of 388,452 square metres of occupied, indoor exhibit space for this show. And almost every exhibit is under a roof, making this an all-weather event.
About half of the available floor space is occupied by the 1,361 exhibitors representing German companies. So as you'd expect, there is a lot of German being spoken on the floor. But you can expect to frequently overhear conversations in Russian, Italian and English as well. Representatives at each exhibit wear lapel pins with flags of the countries whose languages they speak. That makes it easy to know who to approach if you have a question.
Because the site is so large, you can wear down a lot of shoe leather getting from one end to the other. Fortunately, the show offers complimentary shuttle buses that run around the entire grounds, making it surprisingly easy and fast to get from one end of the Messe to the other.
To satisfy your appetite, there are countless restaurants and food stands offering everything from high-end cuisine to bratwurst and beer. And you can wander through the exhibition with your beer if you want.
Before I wrap up today's post, here's a look at New Holland's second-generation hydrogen tractor prototype, which is on display at the company's large exhibit. Aside from the updated appearance, this tractor has seen some significant redesigning under the sheet metal. With a rated output of about 140 horsepower, this one has a little more muscle than its predecessor. And it has an increased fuel-cell capacity of 340 litres, but that still only gives it two to three hours of working time. Product reps acknowledge that is an area that needs further development.
Scott
Every second year, the German Agricultural Society, DLG, hosts Agritechnica, the largest farm machinery exhibition on the planet. It's held in Hanover Germany. By any standard, the show is enormous. 2,700 exhibitors from 48 countries are showing their newest and best. But unlike nearly all other venues, many manufacturers are also giving you a glimpse of what they intend to offer in future.
As a result, Agritechnica is unique in its size and scope. And in order to make the event interesting and offer more than an ample helping of eye candy, exhibitors go to unusual lengths to be creative. AGCO's Valtra stand is a prime example. The company is using the show to introduce its new N Series tractors, which offer a pretty wide variety of options. So you can order one with the unique specifications you need on your farm, really put your mark on it—so to speak.
Passers-by are invited to step up and put thier fingerprint on this new N Series Valtra tractor.
To help convey that message, show goers here can put their mark—their name and fingerprint to be exact—on the display tractor. After the doors close on this event, the tractor will get a clear-coat paint job to protect all the prints and then be auctioned off. The proceeds will go toward funding an agricultural development project in Africa.
This week I'll be posting daily updates to this blog to give you a taste of what you're missing, if you didn't make it across the Atlantic. So stay tuned for more.
Oh, and in case you're wondering. Yes, my fingerprint and the Grainews name will be encased forever on that Valtra N Series along with hundres of others.
My thumb print, like hundreds of others, will stay on this tractor. All the surfaces will eventually be protected by a clear top coat, making this a truly one-off machine.
Auf wiedersehen from Germany,
Scott
The northern lights have seen queer sights but the queerest they ever did see, was... an agriculture conference in the subarctic, maybe? At least that what I would have thought a few weeks before I was invited to Whitehorse to be a guest speaker at one.
Now, as I sit in the Vancouver airport on my way home waiting for a connecting flight (my 16th so far this year), I have to think what a great opportunity it was to attend that event.
I was asked to talk to Yukon producers about farm machinery. Hopefully, I left them with some useful information, but I'm sure I left the territory with more new knowledge than I left behind. That's because most of what I knew about the Yukon before this trip I learned from Robert Service! Considering he published those infamous Klondike poems around 1907, I was a little out of touch, to say the least.
And by the way, I should apologize to him for using one of his well-crafted lines to do something as unpoetic as open this blog post.
The Yukon conference was organized by the Agriculture Branch of the territorial government. Staff there are busily trying to boost local food production and lure more northerners into the farming profession. As I understand it, there are currently about 160 producers in the region; and despite the fact it's such a small group, they are pretty diversified, raising beef, pork and poultry, along with growing vegetables and even some short-season cereals. Most of them are market gardeners working on a relatively small scale.
Consumers in the Yukon—like everywhere else—have developed a taste for fresh, locally-grown food, and they're willing to pay for it. Most farm commodities grown there are sold right at the farm gate or at a farmers' market, and they're netting some good returns. Talking with a few people at the conference, I was able to get an idea of just how much: $4.50 a pound for a hanging side of pork—not cut and wrapped. $6.50 a pound for chicken. Even though feed costs are high, most agree those numbers pencil out pretty well.
There are some unique challenges to be overcome when farming that far north, though. One example was the beef producer who told me he preferred Texas Longhorn cattle because their horns allowed them to fight off wolves, which have cost him several animals over the years.
From a machinery standpoint, things aren't easy either. There are only a Kubota and a Bobcat dealer in the region, so the choice of new tractors is limited, if you want to buy locally. Getting implements is even harder. Most of those I spoke to told me they were using some pretty old machines, and they were eager to talk about how to get their hands on more equipment. Finding it is one thing, but getting it to the Yukon in a cost-efficient manner is the real trick.
On my 6:20 AM return flight from Whitehorse to Vancouver, I had a chance to see the sunrise on the southern horizon; as I looked back north out the window of the plane, it was still night in the Yukon. They may have to endure long hours of winter darkness; but in large part it's those endless days of summer sunshine that make growing cereal crops possible, even as far north as Dawson City.
So I have to say thanks to Brad, Matt and Tony at the Yukon Agriculture Branch for giving me the chance to go north for the first time. I think I even saw the marge of Lake LeBarge from the plane on the way in.
Senior management at Versatile had a lot to talk about on the 26th of October. The Clarence Avenue assembly plant in Winnipeg celebrated completion of the 100,000th tractor built there since it began production in 1966. The milestone model, a 305 MFWD, along with the dealer that sold it and the customers who bought it were present for a special ceremony as the tractor rolled off one of the plant's two assembly lines.
With all the pomp and pageantry you'd expect on such an occasion, media, plant employees, customers and dealers were present as the keys were handed over to the new owners, who are longtime Versatile customers from the U.S. midwest.
The 305 was given a custom paint job along with an ample serving of chrome accessories, to make it a one of a kind.
But the company had other big news to share. It has updated the models in its articulated four-wheel drive lineup. For 2012, the big tractors will use either a QSX 11.9-litre or 15-litre Cummins Tier IV-compliant engine, depending on the model. The current 305 horsepower articulated tractor will be dropped, and the new line will include six models in the 350 to 550 horsepower range. Versatile's largest model, the 575, will stay in production; but it will continue to use the existing Tier III engine for the time being.
A Caterpillar powershift transmission modified specifically for Versatile's application will now be available in all the new large tractors. It offers eight, closely-spaced gears in the critical working range, which gives operators a lot of choices when selecting the right field speeds.
And if two major announcements wasn't enough, management also gave the media a glimpse of its prototype combine, which is currently undergoing field trials in North America. The fact a combine will soon wear the Versatile name is possibly the worst-kept secret in the farm equipment industry today. But for the first time we had a chance to take a few photos of it behind the Winnipeg factory, as long as we kept our distance. With 485 horsepower, the Torum 760 fits in at the high end of the Class IIX range.
Everyone in Versatile management was tight lipped about the details under the sheet metal, but they did say the rotary threshing mechanism uses a counter-rotating concave. When will the company officially launch it? “Sooner rather than later,” was the official response. I'll keep you posted.
Scott
No, that caption wasn't my attempt to be the first one to sing a Christmas carol this year. My trip to the grand opening of Seed Hawk's expanded production facility earlier this month made me think about those words. It became clear to me that owners of the many prairie-based implement manufacturers, like Seed Hawk and all the others, must have had a real ability to look beyond potential problems and see opportunities when they started out.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, a few producers across the prairie were busily building better implements in their farm workshops, because they couldn't buy the kind of seeding and tillage tools that met their needs. That isn't to say there weren't already many options available to them. It's just that production practices were evolving and the kinds of implements offered by the major manufacturers weren't keeping up. Some producers turned their implement-building activities into extremely successful commercial ventures. The names of their companies are now known around the world.
Today, those farmers-turned-manufacturers are responsible for well over $800 million in economic activity in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, according to statistics from Manitoba Trade and Investment.
I suspect most of those who now operate businesses that manufacture implements or supply components into a global market met with more than their share of naysayers when they started out. It seems the number of people who are more than willing to point out why something new won't or can't work greatly outnumber those who see why it can.
I encountered that problem recently on a much smaller scale. I contacted a public institution to discuss creating a how-to article series. Everyone I spoke to thought the project was a great idea; and it really met the objectives of the institution, which was to pass on knowledge. But when word of the project made its way up the chain of command there for official approval, one person in senior management saw only potential problems.
When that manager and I discussed the possible pitfalls and I explained how we could easily deal with them, I sensed it didn't matter that the problems weren't insurmountable. She only saw why things couldn't happen. She didn't see what I saw.
Had the owners of the dozens of agricultural-product manufacturers in western Canada shared that “You-can't-because...” attitude, the economic landscape of the the three prairie provinces would be very different than it is now. Would we be weathering the economic downturn as well as we are had these individuals not pursued their visions? I don't think so. The continued strength of sales of agricultural machinery has been one of the powerful economic drivers in today's regional economy.
When you look toward the future in your farming operations, what do you see? Do you have a vision? Do the problems look bigger than the opportunities? I'm not suggesting you put on rose-coloured glasses when you look to the future, but how successful your operation will become depends in large part on the answers to those questions.
Scott
Profile
Grainews' machinery editor Scott Garvey follows trends and innovation in equipment technology, takes a look at new farm machinery offerings, tracks their performance and goes into the workshop to find better ways to keep them up and running.
