Equip Blog

The upcoming December issue of Grainews will take a look at what’s new in tractors this year. There’s a lot to report. And just when we thought we could probably cram it all into one issue, along comes today’s announcement of another new model from Kubota. The new Kubota M6S-111 tractor is being unveiled at […] Read more

As thunder crashed and lightning flashed, Dr. Frankenstein shouted those immortal words, “It’s alive!”. Who could forget that classic scene in the old movie? Exactly the same thing happened in my laboratory (ok, workshop) this week. I animated the dead—sort of. As lightning flashed around me, I yelled from the workshop roof on Halloween, “It’s […] Read more

At the JCB Fastrac product launch in the English Midlands a couple of weeks ago, I had the very pleasant opportunity to reconnect with a bunch of farm machinery writers and editors from England. They’re people I’ve met or written for in the past couple of decades doing this job. The opportunity to talk shop […] Read more

This week JCB revealed its new ag sector machinery offerings by holding a media event at its world headquarters near Rocester England. In the impressive style of machine introduction events I’ve seen from this brand before, a stage curtain in the company’s on-campus theatre lifted to reveal their newest product. In this case, the machine […] Read more

Nearly every day some new press release pops up in my email inbox, usually several. In the agricultural machinery world most of those announcements use a pretty matter-of-fact style. They generally rely on the newsworthiness of the machine to provide any impact. I guess all the brands think we machinery editors a pretty pragmatic bunch. […] Read more

Last week involved yet another road trip as I headed south to take in the U.S. Farm Progress show in Boone, Iowa. This year all four of the major brands coordinated their primary new product launches around that event. For its official launch, John Deere invited members of the farm media to its nearby Des […] Read more

I suspect the idea of a plowing match started with a group of farmers sitting around claiming each could steer a team of horses pulling a plow in a straighter line than the other. Although, I may be wrong. When plows vanished from the prairie landscape here, so it seems did plowing matches. And any […] Read more

Last winter I met with a group of university engineering students and their professor in a small garage behind a house in Regina. They were one of 15 such teams working on creating an autonomous tractor and planter to enter in the AgBOT Challenge in Indiana last May. As it happened, they ended up winning […] Read more

People have always shopped for bargains, but I suppose you could credit today’s low-price, big-box store concept that is a magnet for bargain hunters to Sam Walton. His creation, Walmart, spearheaded the trend. As a result, I wonder if he’s changed the way all of us consumers now think. We seem to always concentrate on […] Read more