The new offerings include more three-point hitch attachments, such as box blades, rotary mowers and small tillage equipment. For the front end, the brand will now offer pallet and bale forks along with snow plows.

And there are new options for its line of UTVs as well, such as fertilizer spreaders and small disc harrows.

“Customer input is at the core of this expansion,” said Steven Benedict, product line manager at Kioti. “Our goal is to make it easier for our customers to find implements that fit their equipment, their work, and their budgets. This new lineup strengthens our ability to deliver reliable tools that help them get the job done season after season.”

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They soon found a loyal following with many people.

“I think we hold the claim of being the creator of the sub-compact (tractor) market,” Kubota’s product manager for compact utility tractors Justin Parrott says.

“This is our 50th anniversary in Canada. Kubota started in the 1960s with tractors to fill a gap in the Asian market. Small, lightweight tractors. It was around ’72 for the U.S. and ’75 for Canada where they said, ‘Hey, maybe there’s a market outside of Asia we’re not really considering.’”

Breaking into a new market with an unfamiliar brand in those years, though, wasn’t as easy as it might be today with social media.

“We started knocking on doors at dealerships, saying, ‘Hey, we have this orange tractor. Do you want to see if there’s a market for it?’” Parrott says.

“I definitely wouldn’t call it an overnight success. It was really a couple of years for these things to start gaining popularity. Back then there was no social media or public outlets like we’re used to today. So it was a lot of word of mouth. And it started filling a market gap people didn’t know they needed.”

The brand remained a significant player in the compact tractor segment but eventually made a move into larger models. The range of Kubota tractors offered to Canadian buyers has since increased substantially.

“I think it was the late ’70s, early ’80s we started getting into the more utility-size tractors,” he says. “In 2000 we went back down to the BX Series and created that sub-compact market. That was really to do with the evolving times. People were moving away from cities. Going into rural one- to 10-acre properties was becoming a lot more popular. That’s what drove the need for that sub-compact market.

“It’s still a very large market for us. I think most people see Kubota as being the leader in the compact and sub-compact market.”

In 2019, five years after launching the M7 tractor line, the brand introduced its largest series, the M8, which now hits the 200-horsepower mark.

At the official introduction of the M8 tractor line at Grapevine, Texas, company executives said Kubota intended to become a major player in the commercial agriculture market. Three years before the M8 launch the company had already made a major step in that direction by buying U.S.-based implement manufacturer Great Plains, which produces seeding and tillage equipment.

Even earlier, in 2012, Kubota had acquired the Norwegian implement manufacturer Kverneland. Since then technology from that purchase has found its way into Kubota-branded round balers.

Kubota now has around 150 dealers across the country. And even though its product line has expanded significantly, the small tractor market continues to be a major part of its business.

Look for some high-profile advertising this year to mark the anniversary, as well as some custom-wrap options on tractors.

“We have some pretty big campaigns going on with our dealerships to celebrate 50 years,” Parrott says.

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Fair enough, because the Nexat is like no other conventional field machine. It’s an implement carrier designed to handle every field operation from seeding to harvesting and work in a controlled traffic plan to minimize soil compaction.

Grainews spent a day in the field near Elie, Man., with the first Nexat to come to Canada. Elie will be the location for the company’s first Canadian sales and service hub, where the company expects to begin selling the Nexat in time for the 2026 season.

The Nexat was planting soybeans as the machine begins its first full season of proving itself in a Canadian field, although a total of 18 prototypes are now already working in fields in Europe and South America. In all, field trials have been ongoing for about seven years.

“It’s the first spring for us in Canada,” Nexat’s founder and CEO Klemens Kalverkamp says. “We were seeding in the U.S. last year and since 2019 in Ukraine. So it’s the sixth year for planting and seeding.”

The Germany-based company builds the basic machine and has looked to specialist manufacturers to design and supply all the implements it uses to do field work, picking those companies whose implements Kalverkamp feels best suit agriculture on the continent where they’ll be used.

The exception to that is the combine attachment, which Nexat designed and built in-house.

“For the combine unit, there are no mid-size partners in ag tech,” Kalverkamp says. “In all the other products we are working together with mid-size innovative companies.”

Using those attachments designed by partner companies, the Nexat is able to completely replace a conventional tractor and combine. “The basic principle is you just need one machine to do all the jobs, seeding, planting, spraying, tillage and harvesting.”

Advantages

But Kalverkamp believes the Nexat does more than provide an alternative to traditional tractor and implement designs by offering advantages those machines can’t match.

By carrying the implement — and, in the case of the seed drill, the product tanks — draught and wheel slippage are reduced, improving fuel efficiency.

“We have less fuel consumption, less complexity,” Kalverkamp says. “At the end of the day it’s a simple machine, very service-friendly. Every service technician can change any part with a digital animation.”

The company provides that digital service information.

The simplicity comes from a dual-engine drive system, each powering an electrical generator that drives four electric motors on the track modules.

“All the (electric) motors are the same,” he says. “With modern tractors if you have a problem in the gearbox, it takes two days to fix it. To take out and replace an electrical motor is done in four hours. And it can be done by any average service technician.”

Each diesel engine is rated at 550 horsepower, but some operations, such as seeding or spraying, will only require running one of them. The combine attachment would need power from both, due to its higher demand for horsepower.

The current Nexat model uses two Leibherr diesels, which are popular in trucks and construction equipment in Europe. But the company expects to be able to offer North American buyers the option of replacing them with Cummins engines.

“We’re not just thinking about how we can make the tractor or combine better,” Kalverkamp says. “We’re thinking about how we can improve the whole process.”

Related: Check out the NEXAT All-in-One Crop Production System System Specifications

As he sees it, one of the biggest advantages the Nexat offers is its ability to allow farmers to improve soil conditions. Using a controlled traffic pattern with its tracks — or optional wheels — always following in the same path, roughly 95 per cent of the field surface remains untouched. That significantly reduces compaction problems.

“After 40 years of travelling around to farms all around the world, I recognized that there is one problem everywhere, and that is compaction. In the last five years I’ve thought a lot about the soil (and how to rejuvenate it).”

As the Nexat runs through the field, steering itself and guided by GPS, the cab can be pivoted to the rear. That allows the operator to observe the back of the machine and monitor implement operation from a perspective not available from a regular tractor cab.

Inside the cab, the sound level is remarkably low, because the engines are several feet away on the main body of the machine. The operator can move the cab through an arc of more than 180 degrees.

For roading, the tracks or wheels pivot 90 degrees, creating an overall travel width of just 12 feet — and it can hit a top speed of 40 km/h. To help back it into tight spaces, the Nexat can be controlled with a wireless remote control.

“It’s the first holistic, planned production system, we call it,” Kalverkamp says. “It’s not just a machine. It’s much more. With our technology we want to enable farmers to make more profit, have better soil condition with less erosion and putting C0₂ back into the ground. And we’ve proven we can do this.”

The K-Hart drill

Anyone whose been to a western Canadian farm show recently may have noticed the K-Hart Spyder seed drill on display. While arguably not yet a household name in the seeding sector compared to other brands, K-Hart is the partner chosen to supply the seed drill attachment for the Nexat in this country.

“In Canada we’re working together with K-Hart,” Kalverkamp says, “because K-Hart has openers with minimum soil disturbance at the surface. In a dry spring like this, it’s very important.”

The K-Hart drill design impressed Kalverkamp, who says he only wants to partner with shortlines that are innovative to develop attachments for the Nexat.

“We worked with Nexat to help bridge the gap between our current design and a design that fits on the Nexat unit,” says the director of engineering at K-Hart Industries, Erron Leafloor. “This is the second prototype. The first one ran in Europe last fall.”

The drill attaches to the Nexat with standard category 4 three-point hitch connections, for a straightforward attachment process.

“Probably most of the time is just hooking up air hoses,” Leafloor says. “At one single bank you have all the electrical and hydraulics connected.”

The K-Hart attachment uses the same double-disc opener found on the brand’s own Spyder drill.

“The core (opener) technology we use at K-Hart is through another partnership we have with Tony Gent out of the U.K.,” Leafloor says. “It’s a very unique concept of the double disc but at an angle so you don’t get sidewall compaction. That helps with root growth. The root can actually grow in both directions.”

Although the Nexat’s rigid frame spans the entire 45-foot working width of the drill, the openers get a total of nearly two feet of vertical travel to contour across irregular field surfaces.

“We have the openers on a traditional parallel link,” Leafloor says. “But on top of that, the entire frame is on a parallel link. With the smaller (frame) sections you can travel in and out of ditches. Each of these sections will travel an additional approximately 13 inches.

A front row of coulters delivers fertilizer in a mid-row banding style. It’s also possible to deliver a starter course into the trench with the seed.

Rather than pull an air cart, the product tanks ride above the drill, and the company expects to offer total comparable capacity to a conventional prairie drill setup to maintain seeding efficiency.

The product and seed storage bins and delivery system are provided by Vaderstad. The distribution system, meanwhile, is a K-Hart design.

Hitting the market

Kalverkamp says the company expects its initial sales will be to early adopters. A few of those have already contacted the company.

“We were looking for the best reference farmers,” he says. “A ‘reference farmer,’ in our way of thinking, is progressive, a first-mover. They’re using the latest technology to keep on the (cutting) edge of their business.

“Our business philosophy is long-term. We want to make customers happy. If they’re not, we’ll take back the machine.”

While the Nexat basically runs on its own at the moment, with little for the operator to do, the company expects to make the operator’s cab redundant within the next three years. It’s planning to introduce a fully autonomous version by 2028.

The Nexat was designed with full autonomy in mind right from the start, Kalverkamp says.

This November, at Agritechnica in Germany, the company will debut a 90-foot model, which may be available to Canadian buyers for next season.

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The company calls it Active Implement Guidance, and it shares guidance line data between your implement and tractor to help ensure your planting and tillage efforts — for example — stay on track.

“We know that the implement doesn’t always track directly behind the tractor,” Kendal Quandahl, precision segment lead with Case IH, said at the National Farm Machinery Show in Kentucky in February. “What we’ve released is the ability to control the specific placement of the implement.”

This can help when you return to the field for any other work and potentially avoid any crop damage, Quandahl says.

How it works

Essentially, Active Implement Guidance involves installing a receiver on your implement in addition to the one on your tractor. This allows it to follow the guidance line of your tractor.

In other words, it’s one digital brain talking to another to make sure they’re moving in tandem.

“We add that receiver directly to the implement so we know its exact location,” Quandahl says, “and then we typically use a hitch control type that will actually move and independently control the planter.”

This active communication between the devices allows the implement and tractor to follow the same guidance line, reducing drift.

The new system works on any 2000 series Case IH planter and comes with a number of preconfigured profiles to help make setup easier.

Earlier-model planters or tillage units can be set up with the new guidance system as well, but Quandahl urges owners to speak with their local dealers for help setting up a profile that works best for their situation.

Case IH plans to have Active Implement Guidance available this spring at dealerships all across North America.

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The ASABE (the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers) has established guidelines for lighting farm implements. In 2012 the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration adopted those recommendations, which now set the standard for lighting implements, including in this country.

Basically, the standard calls for two red taillights and signal lights on a towed implement if it blocks the tractor’s taillights. And it should have two amber flashing lights to the rear.

That’s a pretty basic minimum.

But most implements built before the late 1990s came without any lights. So it’s up to producers to add them. With farms getting bigger, meaning machines spend more time on the road, that has become increasingly important.

Adding lights to an older implement isn’t hard, and with low-cost LEDs available, it isn’t that expensive. The investment is well worth it.

Here’s a look at how to get some basic taillights and warning lights mounted.

Plug to play

First, if you want to connect to a newer model tractor, it likely has a standard seven-pin trailer plug. So, it’s just a matter of mounting the lights on the implement, wiring them to the appropriate pins on a connector and plugging it into the tractor. To find out which pins in a seven-pin trailer plug are associated to which circuit, just Google it. There are plenty of graphics online showing that. Then, hey, voila, implement lights.

But if you want to connect to an older tractor—one that may not even have factory warning lights—you’ll have to create a whole new lighting system from scratch.

What you’ll need

Obviously you’ll need the lights, themselves. LEDs draw much lower amperage than those with older incandescent bulbs, and they’re often brighter. That means wire gauge can be lighter, which is useful on long wiring runs — and there is less draw on the tractor’s electrical system.

Taillights and signal lights should be red, and flashers should be amber.

Aside from those items, you’ll need a switch, a four- or five-pin relay, and, of course, a fuse and fuse block. Signal and warning light circuits will also require a flasher unit and their own separate relays.

Remember, if you’re going to use LED lights, they require a special LED flasher unit. A regular one won’t work, because LEDs typically don’t draw enough amperage to activate an old-style flasher unit.

Of course, adding a trailer electrical connector to the tractor will be necessary. They are available at Princess Auto or any auto parts store.

The setup

If you’re building the circuit from scratch, put the fuse close to the battery to protect the entire wiring circuitry.

Start with a main power lead coming off the positive battery post. Be sure the gauge of wire used is heavy enough for the load, typically 18 gauge. A heavier gauge may be necessary if the distance to the lights is quite long and there are multiple lights. Length of wire run and power load are the two factors in determining wire gauge.

Run the main power circuit from the battery to the 30 post on a four- or five-pin relay. Run another circuit to a switch, then on to the relay in and out to ground through the 86 and 85 pins. When the switch circuit is closed (activated), it allows power to flow from the 30 pin through the relay and out to the lights via the 87 pin.

For regular on-or-off taillights, just run the power line from the 87 pin on the relay direct to the lights and you’re done. For flashing lights, insert a flasher unit after the switch in that circuit. As power then runs intermittently through the control circuit, current flow to the lights is momentarily interrupted by the relay.

A little fancier

If you like a good light show, it’s possible to add a little more bling to the setup with a second five-pin relay and create a “wig-wag” effect on paired warning lights. Instead of just two lights (one on each side of the implement), a four-light setup can be created with two pairs of lights flashing alternately, kind of like what you’d see on a fire truck.

The first relay controls the circuit, turning it off and on. When it’s activated, it allows power to flow to the second relay, which distributes the current alternately to two different circuits. A second circuit from the first relay’s 87 pin runs through a flasher unit connected to the second relay’s control circuit.

On a five-pin relay, the centre pin, 87a, is a normally closed circuit, meaning it always allows power to flow unless the control circuit is activated. When the control circuit through the flasher unit closes, the second relay opens the 87a circuit and closes the 87 circuit, basically rerouting power from the 87a pin to 87.

So, connect one set of lights to the 87 pin and their paired light to the “87a” pin on the second relay. They will flash on and off alternately. A pretty simple way to create a much more effective warning light system.

The post How to add warning lights appeared first on Grainews.

Ernst and Young has been named the appointed receiver for the case, according to a court order dated June 11. The document names both Leon’s Manufacturing and Ram Industries as debtors.

The Bank of Montreal, which submitted the application for receivership, says the named companies owe over $16.6 million.

The bank had initially set out repayment demands with a deadline of Aug. 9, 2021. The companies then made “satisfactory arrangements with BMO for BMO to agree to continue to make credit available,” according the bank’s affidavit.

The companies failed to meet their obligations in winter 2023, and a new repayment deadline was set for Jan. 31, 2024.

The owing companies consented to a receiver being appointed in spring 2024.

BMO’s affidavit further pointed to the companies’ difficulty meeting payroll and utilities payments, as well as 15 creditor judgements registered against Leon’s Manufacturing since Aug. 1 last year.

In April this year, the Western Producer noted several legal claims filed against the company from farmers who said they had purchased equipment that they had not yet received.

The company had accumulated years of similar complaints, the Producer and Manitoba Co-operator reported as early as 2020.

As of January this year, farmers had registered complaints with the Saskatchewan agriculture ministry, Better Business Bureau and Alberta Farmer’s Advocate Office. The latter said it had been hearing those reports for two years. Farmers complained of paying deposits for equipment that then failed to appear for months or years.

Ernst and Young said in a notice that those who have questions about the receivership or want to file a claim can contact the receiver at 780-441-4237 or by email.

The Leon’s business dates back to 1952 at Bankend, Sask., about 120 km northwest of Yorkton, where Leon Malinowski operated a welding and machine shop.

Relocating to Yorkton in 1967, the company expanded into product lines including its patented dozer blades as well as land scrapers, front-end loader buckets and bale handlers. The family opened the affiliated Ram Industries at Yorkton in 1973, making hydraulic cylinders for ag equipment and other sectors.

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“We’re pretty pleased to announce the introduction of the HP Torsion Harrow series,” says Brandt’s vice-president of sales, Sheldon Gerspacher. “It’s well suited for large operations, as it comes in 100 and 120 feet (widths). So, when you’re travelling up to 12 miles per hour, you can cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. It builds off of the very successful harrow offering we have already.”

Light or aggressive tillage action

The HP Torsion Harrows are heavy, weighing in at around 50,000 pounds (22,680 kilograms), and that’s what makes them capable of more aggressive tillage action than a more conventional harrow.

“You can employ light tillage or a significant amount of ground disturbance,” he adds. “We’ve incorporated independent suspension on each section to make sure the ground following and contouring across a machine that large is consistent. One of the things we keyed in on with this unit was consistent field finish, making sure we get consistent down pressure, especially for seedbed preparation in the spring.”

Down pressure is adjustable and can be set on the machine itself. Gerspacher adds that a regular request his company has heard from farmer discussion panels is they want a tough, durable machine. Engineers included features to accommodate that demand, such as larger wheels and tires as well as heavy-duty bushings at joints. The harrows also use a 2.5-inch carbide tip on the tines to extend their working life.

To make coupling easier, the harrows come with a standard equipment hydraulic hitch jack and colour-coded hydraulic connection points.

“We wanted to make it easy and efficient to hook and unhook from the tractor,” Gerspacher explains.

Both HP Torsion Harrow models fold up to a transport width of just under 18 feet.

“We’ve made it really easy and safe to transport this unit up and down the road,” he notes. “And we’ve made it very easy to get it in and out of transport.”

Production of the HP Torsion Harrows began in late 2020, so new models are available for the 2021 season.

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“A lot guys don’t want to run 4.5 or five miles per hour like a traditional tandem disc does,” explains Trevor Jubinville, Versatile’s tillage and seeding product marketing manager. “They want a tool that’s simply more productive and that means going faster. That’s what this machine will do. The Fury is a high-speed compact disc. It’s going to move lots of soil, lots of residue. It works 2.5 to five inches deep. It will manage residue, but you can run eight to 10 miles per hour.” It can flex side-to-side as well as fore and aft to better follow ground contours.

The Fury uses two rows of independently mounted discs followed by a soil reconsolidation attachment to leave a firm field surface behind it that is less prone to erosion. It is available in 25-, 30-, 35- and 40-foot working widths, and it folds up to just under 12 feet wide and under 14 feet high for easy transport.

“We give you a choice of blade size,” adds Jubinville. “Our base blade is a 20 inch with a four-bolt bearing hub. We offer a 22-, a 24- and a 26-inch blade. With a 22 and large blade we go to a six-bolt hub with a heavier bearing. We offer three different choices of finishing attachment on the back.”

The Fury uses a full-floating frame design, so it will float front to back. And the wings will flex up and down to contour over rolling terrain.

“It’s available in a limited release for 2018,” he says. “So we’ll have units available for spring.” The Fury will also be distributed under the Farm King brand as the HS8500.

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“Farmers will now be able to obtain three types of equipment from their Kinze dealer, all with the same standard of quality,” said Susanne Veatch, the company’s president and chief marketing officer, in a press release.

The design of the new high-speed discs may look a little familiar to Prairie farmers. Saskatchewan’s Degelman Industries has licensed the design of its Pro-Till to Kinze, who will build and market its version under the Mach Till name. It will offer four working widths.

“We are constantly evaluating opportunities in the market for new products that would be a good fit for Kinze,” Veatch noted. “The Mach Till product line allows us to improve our already strong brand and have instant access to the growing high-speed disc segment with an already proven product.”

The Mach Till line offers working speeds in the eight to 12 m.p.h. range and can be used for working at deep depths or for shallow seedbed preparation. They’ll be available through all North American Kinze dealers, with deliveries scheduled to being this fall.

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The SPS 360 is designed to cope with high moisture conditions in fields and leave them ready for seeding with just a single pass. A primary tillage tool built with a 6-inch by 4-inch heavy-duty frame, the SPS 360 is capable of working at 7.5 to 8.5 m.p.h.

It integrates four different ground-engaging systems. First, a row of 20-inch notched, straight coulters placed on 12-inch spacing can cut and size residue. They can be lifted and locked out when not required. Second, heavy-duty shanks with a 1,000-pound trip force are able to penetrate even hard soils. They are arranged immediately behind the coulters to minimize problems with residue collecting on them.

Behind the shanks are sections of three or four-bar harrows with adjustable tooth angles. And finally, 14-inch, spiral rolling baskets leave a firm field finish. The basket down force is adjustable.

SPS 360 machines can be ordered in 40- and 50-foot working widths, and they are available for delivery this spring but only in limited numbers.

The XR 770 eXtended Range Harrow also debuts this year. According to the company, it has improved capabilities compared to regular harrows. It can work in more extreme field conditions and leave a smooth, finished surface. It can also cope with high amounts of field residue.

The XR 770 is a redesigned harrow bar with seven rows of 22-inch tines, and each 10-foot harrow section has 26 inches of vertical travel. One feature that sets it apart from many other harrow bars is the hydraulic in-cab Adjustable Down Force (ADF) system, which ensures even pressure across the entire toolbar regardless of field contours.

It builds on the design of Bourgault’s auto-fold system and double-acting cable design used on the brand’s 7200 Series heavy harrows. 70- and 90-foot models are available in limited release for the 2017 season.

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