Implement & Tractor articles from March 2008

Implement & Tractor archives from March 2008

From the editor.(Editorial)
March 1, 2008... As a journalist, I knew the annual stockholder meeting for Deere & Co. on February 27 had a chance of becoming much more interesting--make that more controversial--than the usual stockholders meeting. It was expected that the stockholders...

Help wanted: ag service technicians needed! Dealers are tapping into creative initiatives to recruit skilled service technicians.(Part 1)
March 1, 2008... High on the list of concerns for most ag equipment dealers is finding and retaining service technicians. Some dealers, like Bill Scoville of LaMoure Equipment in LaMoure, N.D., are finding solutions in their own backyards and others are...

Jason McKinney took over statewide sales and dealer support for Pequea in Florida and Georgia in December.(PEOPLE)
March 1, 2008... Jason McKinney took over statewide sales and dealer support for Pequea in Florida and Georgia in December. He was previously territory manager for New York and New England. Shane Badger will manage Pequea sales and dealer support in New...

McCormick USA.(PEOPLE)
March 1, 2008... Thurman Kirldand has been hired by McCormick USA to lead dealer development efforts for the Landini and McCormick brands. Thurman brings more than 35 years of dealer development, sales and marketing experience to McCormick following a...

Raven Industries.(PEOPLE)
March 1, 2008... Paul Welbig is the new marketing manager for the Flow Controls Division of Raven Industries, Sioux Falls, S.D. An eight-year company veteran, Welbig oversees all marketing activities regarding Raven products and policies. Stacy Giddings has...

Grote Industries.(PEOPLE)
March 1, 2008... Matt Forner has been promoted to director of aftermarket sales for Grote Industries, Madison, Ind. In this role, he will lead the growth of Grote's U.S. Aftermarket Sales Division, which includes both Traditional and Heavy Duty sales teams....

At the annual meeting for KIOTI Tractor dealers, held in Cancun, Mexico, in January, 2008, dealers who sold over a million dollars of KIOTI tractors in 2007 were recognized and congratulated on their accomplishment by C.G. Kim, President of KIOTI North America, Bill Klein, KIOTI National Sales Manager, and Alan Rivera, President of the KIOTI Dealer Council and owner of Rivera's Machinery of Texas.(DEALERSHIPS)
March 1, 2008... At the annual meeting for KIOTI Tractor dealers, held in Cancun, Mexico, in January, 2008, dealers who sold over a million dollars of KIOTI tractors in 2007 were recognized and congratulated on their accomplishment by C.G. Kim, President of...

On Jan. 1, 2008, Kuhn's two U.S. companies, Kuhn Farm Machinery, Inc. (the North American marketing and distribution arm of Kuhn Group) and Kuhn Knight, Inc. (the manufacturing company) merged to create Kuhn North America, Inc., headquartered in Brodhead, Wis.(MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS)
March 1, 2008... On Jan. 1, 2008, Kuhn's two U.S. companies, Kuhn Farm Machinery, Inc. (the North American marketing and distribution arm of Kuhn Group) and Kuhn Knight, Inc. (the manufacturing company) merged to create Kuhn North America, Inc., headquartered...

Mahindra USA.(MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS)
March 1, 2008... Mahindra USA announces a new partnership with the MacDonald Motorsports race team. Under the agreement, driver DJ Kennington's car #81 features the Mahindra logo on its hood and side panels at selected NASCAR races in California, Georgia and...

PEER Bearing Company.(MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS)
March 1, 2008... PEER Bearing Company, Waukegan, Ill., has earned recognition as a Partner-level supplier for 2007 in the John Deere Achieving Excellence Program, Deere & Company's highest supplier rating. The Waukegan-based company supplies radial, tapered,...

Pequea.(MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS)
March 1, 2008... Pequea recently announced that all its rakes, rotary tedders, bale transports and feeders are to be painted Pequea's new signature color, harvest red. Manure spreaders will switch to harvest red on July 1, 2008. Dealers can continue to request...

Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC (BFNT).(MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS)
March 1, 2008... Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC (BFNT) has announced price increases for Bridgestone and Firestone brand tire lines and all associate brand tires. The increases--up to 8 percent on passenger and light truck, truck and bus, and...

Farmers Union Industries, LLC, has announced the acquisition of a line of agricultural equipment from Artex Fabricators Ltd of Langely, B.C. Canada.(MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS)
March 1, 2008... Farmers Union Industries, LLC, has announced the acquisition of a line of agricultural equipment from Artex Fabricators Ltd of Langely, B.C. Canada. The line of silage and manure handling equipment will be manufactured by Redwood Metal Works of...

Trelleborg Industrial Products.(MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS)
March 1, 2008... Trelleborg Industrial Products, part of the business area Trelleborg Engineered Systems within the global industrial group Trelleborg, has opened a newly constructed manufacturing plant in Kuressaare, Estonia, on the island of Saaremaa. The...

Tonutti S.p.a., has purchased the technology and manufacturing rights to Tecnoagricola's innovative Air Seeder product, including the patented Collovati Opener[R] technology.(MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS)
March 1, 2008... Tonutti S.p.a., has purchased the technology and manufacturing rights to Tecnoagricola's innovative Air Seeder product, including the patented Collovati Opener[R] technology. The acquisition, signed in mid-December, has resulted in creation of...

Montana Tractors.(MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS)
March 1, 2008... Montana Tractors has appointed Agricultural Web Services (AWS), a division of Dominion Enterprises, as its exclusive Internet services and solutions provider. AWS provides web sites and Internet marketing solutions for farm equipment dealers...

A collaboration between Ford and John Deere may mean that farmers are bringing in their harvests using equipment made with their own crops.(MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS)
March 1, 2008... A collaboration between Ford and John Deere may mean that farmers are bringing in their harvests using equipment made with their own crops. The two companies have agreed that Deere will further develop and manufacture Ford's soy-based flexible...

Miller-St. Nazianz.(MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS)
March 1, 2008... Miller-St. Nazianz's HydraLink Suspension was named the inaugural winner of the CropLife IRON[R] Product of the Year Award. The trophy was presented in mid-January at the Wisconsin Crop Production Association Meeting in Madison, Wis. Miller-St....

KIOTI.(MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS)
March 1, 2008... KIOTI has implemented a new 4-Year, Full-Fleet Warranty, which extends commercial use coverage to 48 months and eliminates all hourly usage ceilings for coverage eligibility within the first four years. By removing the maximum hours covered by...

The new Massey Ferguson Heritage Catalog, featuring Original Equipment-quality parts for Ferguson, Massey Ferguson, and Massey-Harris equipment, was recently released by AGCO Parts Division.(PUBLICATIONS)
March 1, 2008... The new Massey Ferguson Heritage Catalog, featuring Original Equipment-quality parts for Ferguson, Massey Ferguson, and Massey-Harris equipment, was recently released by AGCO Parts Division. The 338-page catalog is organized into 17 sections,...

Dealer discovery leads to Case IH '100 Owner Club'.(Industry Notebook)
March 1, 2008... Case IH's new "Axial Flow 100 Owner Club" was formed to recognize customers who have purchased 100 Case IH combines. The idea came when Arnold Companies, Inc., the Case IH dealership in Kimball, Minn., was reviewing their records and discovered...

Sales tips.
March 1, 2008... Selling as a Business Here is something that may surprise many salespeople--selling is not a 9 to 5 job; it's a business. It always has been and always will be. Many salespeople fail to make money in sales because they have either...

Customer appreciation day grows into multi-day, multi-faceted event: dealership commitment and staff teamwork are needed to produce successful special events like Hartland Equipment's annual John Deere Days.
March 1, 2008... The Western Kentucky University Agriculture Exposition Center in Bowling Green turned into a sea of John Deere green for three days in January. Hartland Equipment, a four-location dealership (Bowling Green, Glasgow, Louisville and...

New ag secretary on the job.
March 1, 2008... New Ag Secretary on the job--Edward Schafer was confirmed as the new Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on January 28, 2008, and the new USDA chief's first order of business is to finish the farm bill. He replaces Deputy Secretary...

Large crops needed for 2008.
March 1, 2008... Large crops needed for 2008--Small inventories at the end of 2007 point to the need for large crops in 2008, according to Darrel Good, University of Illinois Extension marketing specialist. He said the USDA's February report of U.S. and world...

Case IH launches "Max Service".
March 1, 2008... Case IH launches "Max Service"--This round-the-clock access to people, products and parts is provided for Case IH operation critical equipment--Axial-Flow[R] combines, Steiger[R], Quadtrac[R] and Magnum[TM] tractors or Module Express[TM] 625...

$101 billion ag exports forecast.
March 1, 2008... $101 billion ag exports forecast--Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said the FY 2008 forecast for U.S agricultural exports is a record $101 billion for FY 2008, $19 billion above 2007. Speaking at the USDA's Agricultural Outlook Forum, Schafer...

Is a world food emergency close?
March 1, 2008... Is a world food emergency close?--Very close, according to Chris Hurt, Purdue University ag economist. Hurt said the world and U.S. food supplies are tightening and that foreign buyers of beans, corn and wheat have been aggressive, and such...

$90 million expansion for large HP tractors.
March 1, 2008... $90 million expansion for large HP tractors--Deere & Company plans to invest an additional $90 million in its Waterloo, Iowa, facilities to expand its manufacturing capacity for large, high-horsepower tractors by 25 percent. A company spokesman...

Long-term unemployed rate remains high.
March 1, 2008... Long-term unemployed rate remains high--The rate of people labeled as "long-term unemployed" has held at 18 percent since October 2005, up from about 10 percent during previous periods when overall unemployment was five percent or less....

Ethanol outlook.
March 1, 2008... Ethanol outlook--By the end of 2008, the U.S. will have the capacity to produce 13 billion gallons of ethanol, but the maximum amount of ethanol the market--and the infrastructure--can handle is 12 billion gallons, said Wally Tyner, Purdue...

Farmers are adopting best management practices.
March 1, 2008... Farmers are adopting best management practices--Record numbers of farmers are adopting best management practices, according to a survey from the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) and The Fertilizer Institute. The survey reached...

Lord of the Rings, Seals, and Bearings: the corporate parts manager: a people-focused corporate asset manager will end up being worth considerably more than his or her weight in gold.(Op-Ed)
March 1, 2008... The parts desk emerged almost as an afterthought in the historical development of the agricultural equipment dealership. People who ran dealerships realized that people wouldn't buy complex farm equipment unless they could find sources for...

Spotlight 1--guidance technology.
March 1, 2008... Guidance technology has come a long way since its introduction to farming in the early 1990s. Recent development of universally accepted connections has created compatibility for various electronically controlled functions and reduced the...

Outback S3.(Spotlight 1--Guidance Technology)
March 1, 2008... The Outback S3[TM] is the newest generation in Outback Guidance[TM] products offered by Hemisphere GPS. It combines the most popular features of the Outback S2[TM] and the Outback 360[TM] with Crescent GPS's newest receiver technology. With an...

Autoboom system.(Spotlight 1--Guidance Technology)
March 1, 2008... Once the Autoboom ISO node is plugged into the ISOBUS network, full control of the Autoboom system is achieved through a compatible third party display. This ISOBUS-compatible system from Raven Industries is designed to the ISO 11783...

mojoRTK and Virtual Wrench.(Spotlight 1--Guidance Technology)
March 1, 2008... Leica Geosystems' mojoRTK is the first auto-steer system that can be serviced and supported virtually with the agriculture industry's first real-time, virtual service, support and diagnostic tool--the Virtual Wrench[TM]. The Virtual Wrench...

Trimble EZ-Office[TM].(Spotlight 1--Guidance Technology)
March 1, 2008... This software offers seamless field-to-office data transfer and a simple way to manage GPS-collected farm management records and information. EZ-Office is part of Trimble's new Connected Farm[TM] suite of information management tools. It...

FarmPRO.(Spotlight 1--Guidance Technology)
March 1, 2008... This GPS steering and application system is the result of an on-going collaborative product development agreement between AutoFarm[R] and Raven Industries. Designed for professional growers and custom applicators, FarmPro combines the Viper PRO...

Direct Command[TM].(Spotlight 1--Guidance Technology)
March 1, 2008... The two new features of DirectCommand, Ag Leader's popular application control system, are control over chemical injection applications and granular control for spreaders. For chemical injection control, DirectCommand now interfaces to the...

World Ag Expo 2008 Review: field equipment is an important part of the largest outdoor agricultural show in the U.S.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] The big issue at World Ag Expo is always the weather since the show is an outdoor show. Again this year the weather was dry even though normal rainfall patterns have returned to California after last winter s...

Lindsay Medium Clearance Tower.(Spotlight 2--Irrigation)
March 1, 2008... In response to the growing popularity of genetically enhanced corn, Lindsay Corporation has developed the industry's first Medium Clearance Tower irrigation system. The new tower clears 11 feet, two inches--nearly 2 feet taller than standard...

iPAC web-based pivot management.(Spotlight 2--Irrigation)
March 1, 2008... iPAC, (Internet Precision Alert & Control) from T-L Irrigation enables the pivot owner to operate the T-L irrigation system remotely though the use of GPS and internet technology. The control unit for this web-based pivot management system...

Reinke dealer receives National Ag award.(Spotlight 2--Irrigation)
March 1, 2008... Dan Ross, right, of Yuma, Colo., receives the 2007 Outstanding National Young Ag Professional award from Johnny Lee, President of the National Young Farmer Educational Association. Ross, a member of the Yuma Young Farmer Chapter, is CEO of...

Reinke inaugurates new service recognition.(Spotlight 2--Irrigation)
March 1, 2008... Reinke[R] Manufacturing, Inc., hosted the inaugural Advanced PLUS Service Seminar in February 2008 at Reinke Headquarters in Deshler, Neb. The seminar provided an advanced level of irrigation product service training for dealerships whose...

A longer, heavier versatile: the new Buhler Versatile four-wheel drive tractors bring more horsepower to the field.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Four new models join the High Horsepower Tractor Series in the Buhler Versatile four-wheel drive lineup. These tractors--305-, 340-, 375- and 400-horsepower models--are powered by the Cummins QS11 11-liter engine...

Auction action.
March 1, 2008... Auctioneers kept telling me the same thing, "Pete, there just aren't ANY sales coming up." I've heard this same comment from prominent auctioneers in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio in the past few weeks. Much of January and February 2008 was...

Case IH 1250 Early Riser planter.(Product Review)
March 1, 2008... Case IH has expanded its lineup of Early Riser 1250 planters to include 12- and 16-row, front fold models in a wide variety of configurations. Planters can be ordered with the latest high-end precision farming features, as a basic value version...

LEON Silver Spreader.(Product Review)
March 1, 2008... A LEON Silver Spreader helps manage manure by distributing the manure or compost evenly to achieve an acceptable rate of application. The spreader distributes the material with a finer texture and more uniform application and gives the operator...

Quick Crank Trashwipper Adjuster.(Product Review)
March 1, 2008... The Quick Crank Trashwipper Adjuster, from S.I. Distributing, is now available through their dealer network and on-line catalog. The Quick Crank Trashwipper Adjuster is designed to improve the efficiency of the factory installed, pin adjust...

Spra-Coupe Sprayers.(Product Review)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The award-winning Spra-Coupe 4455 and 4655 sprayers feature a quieter cab, a new sleek hood design and a turn radius of 13' 9". The added foam insulation around the cab and under the hood, along with the optional...

Orchards/vineyards/nursery tractors.(Product Review)
March 1, 2008... Designed for orchards and vineyards, the John Deere 76F (76 HP), 85F (83 HP, and 100F (96 HP) are powered by turbocharged VM Detroit Diesel engines and have 24F/16R transmissions--easy-shifting for working speeds of under 1 mph to 20 mph in...

Case IH PumaTractor models.(Product Review)
March 1, 2008... The Puma tractor line has four new models built on a shorter wheelbase: Puma 115 (95 PTO HP), Puma 125 (105 PTO HP), Puma 140 (120 PTO HP), Puma 155 with (135 PTO HP)--models equipped with a Case IH 6.75L (411 cu. in.) Tier 3-compliant engine...

New Holland T1110 tractor.(Product Review)
March 1, 2008... This 28-hp T1110 Boomer[TM] compact tractor is larger than a sub-compact tractor, with a longer wheelbase, taller profile, and higher-performance specifications that allow it to do more than mow. Larger tires provide more stability, ground...

Leon Land Scraper Model 1700.(Product Review)
March 1, 2008... The Leon Land Scraper Model 1700 is part of a line designed to make every acre count. Leon offers four different models: M600 (6.03 cu. yd.), M900 (9.09 cu. yd.), M1450 (14.5 cu. yd.) and the M1700 (16.93 cu. yd.). All four have the option of...

Self-propelled combine from Massey Harris.(Founders)
March 1, 2008... This is the first installment in a new I&T series of people, machines and technological advances that changed or enhanced the course of agriculture in the U.S. and throughout the world. While other harvesting mechanisms were still hung on...

Value-adding cab suspension and front linkage: two innovative new features will be available as options on Valtra tractors in the 2008 production year.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Valtra's new features, AutoComfort semi-active cab suspension and LHLink adjustable front linkage, involve adding value to common components through intelligent design, according to Rawley Hicks, product marketing...

Presidential candidates miss the most important issue.(Op-Ed)
March 1, 2008... For the past year we have been subjected to a seemingly endless series of Presidential candidate debates. During these debates, a long list of major and minor White House hopefuls outlined their positions on a myriad of issues. Yet, none of...

Caterpillar CEO predicts economic recovery.
March 1, 2008... Caterpillar CEO predicts economic recovery--Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens believes there will be renewed growth in the U.S. economy by 2009, due to the actions taken by Congress and the Federal Reserve in the early part of 2008. Although...

First cellulosic ethanol plant begins production.
March 1, 2008... First cellulosic ethanol plant begins production--The first small scale waste wood commercial facility began operation near Upton, Wyo., in late January. The plant converts waste wood into a renewable fuel. The plant, a result of six years of...