The tour includes the new PowerStar tractors, hay and forage equipment, precision ag products as well as the new line of skid steer loaders.

Thanks to Gene Hemphill for taking our photo from the floor.

2011 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

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Van Roekel explained that they have a current hay tool line that is a big help in collecting round bales of switchgrass or corn stover. In addition, their latest and most focused is their corn cob collector, the CCX770. Vermeer has been working on this technology full steam ahead for two years but bought the patent from a farmer in Nebraska who had been working on the technology for 10 years.

Here’s how it works. You hook the CCX770 behind a Class 7 or greater combine. Then the machine catches all the materials coming out of the back of the combine and then it sorts out the cobs from the other residue and then the leaves and husks are blown back onto the soil and just the corn cobs are left.

This is a one-pass system but Van Roekel said the farmer will still need to add to his system a way to transport the cobs to storage. The CCX770 is currently available for purchase or lease and you can get more info by clicking here.

You can listen to my full interview with Jay below.

Commodity Classic Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 Commodity Classic
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At the National Farm Machinery Show, most of the New Holland equipment on display proudly displayed soybean biodiesel signage, and company representatives wore buttons proclaiming their support for the domestically-produced fuel. “New Holland has a strong commitment to not only be a part of biodiesel, but also to be a leader in the industry as far as future fuel usage is concerned,” New Holland regional service manager Phil Cobb said at the farm show. He says it was natural for their company to take the lead. “Mainly because our customers are in the soybean areas and grow soybeans,” said Cobb. “Not only does it support farming, we also use the fuel. It’s important for the ag industry to be on the leading edge.”

Cobb says all New Holland equipment is approved for a minimum of five percent biodiesel, with the large combines approved for 100 percent and many of the tractors approved for up to 20 percent.

Listen to my interview with Phil from NFMS here:

Kyle Stewart with John Deere says they debuted the tractor in August so it is new this year to the National Farm Machinery Show. “What we’ve done is completely built from the ground up a brand new 8000 series tractor – the track frame is new, the vehicle frame is new, the whole design is new,” Kyle told me. “We’re getting great response from the farmers. They love the new cab. We’re seeing a lot more track tractors sold than what we saw before in this horsepower range. It’s a real popular product for John Deere.”

Listen to my interview with Kyle in the player below:

2010 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

What is NUE from John Deere at the 2010 National Farm Machinery Show is Nitrogen Utilization Efficiency.

I talked to Dave Wendt with John Deere, who was demonstrating the new addition to the 2510 high speed nutrient applicators. “This machine is a 23 row model, set up on 30 inch spacing to not only side dress, but to run in fall or spring pre-plant.”

The machine folds up into a nice 18 foot package for on-road transport, but the really cool thing that Dave was demonstrating was how it hooks up to the PitStop Pro tendering system to help customers quickly and efficiently change anhydrous ammonia tanks without leaving the cab of the tractor.

“Today, to hook and unhook anhydrous tanks manually might take 10-12 minutes,” Dave said. “With the PitStop System, we’re looking at about a minute and a half to two minutes.” The system is controlled through the same GS2 display in the cab that runs the AutoTrac or rate controller.

Listen to or download my interview with Dave in the player below and watch a demo video here:

It was kind of a slow start to the 2010 National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, thanks to the weather, but by lunch time it appeared to be just about back to a normal crowd.

I talked with Harold Workman, president and CEO of the Kentucky Exposition Center which handles the big show, and he emphasized that it’s business as usual for the four day show. “We got some pretty northern weather here with 6-8 inches of snow that came in yesterday,” he said. “But the interstates are clear, we got the parking lots cleared off, and a lot of people are coming in to the show.”

This is the 45th year for the show which Harold said started in one little corner of one of their wings and grown to more than 800 exhibitors filling over 1.2 million square feet of blessedly indoor space. “It really has become an icon – kind of a barometer for the agribusiness industry,” he said. Attendance is normally right around 300,000 for all four days of the show, including the Championship Tractor Pull sponsored by Syngenta. That event is just a few years younger than the NFMS and is always a sell out.

Listen to or download my interview with Harold Workman in the player below, and enjoy a little 360 degree view video of one of the exhibit hall wings from high atop the John Deere tower here:

The advantage of the scale package, explained Blomme, is that it will allow the producer as he is filling the bulk fill tanks, to see exactly how much he’s putting in each tank. This integrates with the Kinze Vision Display so the operator can see on the display how many acres until he is empty.

“So we’re giving them that productivity, it’s a 110 bushel capacity and allows them to see on their display how much is in their tanks and how much until empty,” said Blomme.

The ASD package is only available with air seed delivery models. To learn more about the ASD feature, visit Kinze’s website and listen to my interview with Laura Blomme.

AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album.

In Brazil, sugarcane accounts for 8.14 million hectares of land or 2.5 percent of the arable land. Of that 2.5 percent, 1.5 percent is sugarcane for ethanol, while 48.1 percent of the country’s arable land is used for pasture for cattle. It is interesting to note that 87 percent of sugarcane production is in the state of Sao Paulo – no where near the Amazon Rain Forest.

This year the industry harvested 471.5 million tons, an increase of 7.5 percent from last year, even accounting for excessive rains that left a significant amount of sugarcane in the fields. So how many people does it take to harvest that much cane? The industry employs 850,000, of that 550,000 are cane cutters.

However, this is rapidly changing with the new mechanized harvest, spurred in part by the Green Protocol in Sao Paulo State. This protocol is an agreement between UNICA, the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, and the Sao Paulo state government, to end sugarcane straw burning by 2014. By the 2008/09 harvest year, 49 percent of the harvest was mechanized.

I was able to see a mechanized harvest when I visited, along with 19 other international journalists, a sugarcane field in Ribeirao Preto. The fields were being harvested for sugarcane delivery to Pedra Agroindustrial sugar/ethanol mill. While the state average of mechanized harvesting is 48 percent, 77 percent of Pedra Agroindustrial’s fields were mechanically harvested. Unlike the corn ethanol industry, a large portion of land is owned by the sugar mill and the remainder of the sugarcane is purchased from farmers and suppliers. Here is a brief harvest video.

While mechanized harvesting is good news for the economic vitality of a mill as well as the environment, it is not good news for cane cutters. Therefore, to address the loss of jobs issue, the renovAcao program was developed to retrain 7,000 cane cutters to work in the sugar mills and ethnol plants as well as to work in other industries. The coordinators of the program are UNICA and Feraesp; Syngenta, John Deere and Case IH are sponsors; and funding comes from the Inter American Development Bank.

Interested in seeing more of my trip? Check out my virtual tour here.

The DB120, as the name implies, is a 120 foot planter – the biggest ever. It was introduced at the National Farm Machinery Show last month (see previous post), but it was still too big to be unfolded all the way in the booth. At the Classic, John Deere seed division marketing manager Rob Rippchen took some time to introduce the big boy to the media and point out some of its features.

“It’s 48 row units, 30 inch centers and 120 foot wide,” Rob says. “The picture doesn’t do it justice to how big it really is, it’s just flat amazing how long and wide it is.”

“The planter is 33 percent larger than the DB90 introduced five years ago, which means about 33 percent more productivity for the grower,” he says. Base equipment on the planter includes: CCS w/Refuge Plus™, Variable Rate Drive, RowCommand™, SeedStar™ 2 Monitoring, Pneumatic Down Force, Rubber Tire Closing, and Walking Gauge Wheels.

The price tag is $345,000 – which means it’s not for every grower, but Rob says it is a market John Deere wants to lead with.

Listen to Rob talk about the DB120 here: cc09-jd-rippchen.MP3

2009 Commodity Classic Photo Album

Agritechnica representatives Annette Reichhold (left) and Dr. Malene Conlong were talking with farmers at the Commodity Classic this week about planning a visit to Hanover, Germany for the event November 10-14.

“Agritechnica attracts 340,000 visitors from all over the world,” says Malene with conference organizer DLG – the German Agricultural Society. She says that Agritechnica is considered the global agricultural “gathering point” and is often the chosen venue for manufacturers to unveil new innovations.

But Agritechnica is more than just an equipment show. “We bring together farmers from all over the world, we have special forums, we have conferences where farmers actually get together to talk about global issues,” said Malene. This year the special focus is on soil and water issues. “We are presenting some of the potential solutions to those issues in various parts of the world.”

Listen to my interview with the Agritechnica ladies at Commodity Classic here: cc09-agritechnica.mp3

2009 Commodity Classic Photo Album

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Two of this year’s awards went to the two company partners who sponsored coverage of the NFMS on Agwired this week.

Katie Sheets with John Deere picked up their award for the 7030 Premium and 7030 Mid-Spec tractors. They range from 100 to 140 PTO hp and are loaded with new features that include a glass hatch roof for increased visibility, a higher transport speed of 25 mph, and cab suspension on the premium model.

Ed Barry with New Holland received the Finovation award for combines. Both Case and New Holland are claiming to have the largest combines in North America, so rather than argue the point, they both got the award. You can read more about the New Holland big boy in yesterday’s post where Ed tells us all about how size matters!

The lovely and talented FIN senior editor Jodie Wehrspann was the award presenter. Thanks to editor-in-chief Karen McMahon for a great awards dinner and ceremony honoring the best of the best! Read about the other FinOvation award winners here.

NFMS 09 Photo Album

This is the New Holland Boomer 8N, a new and improved version of the classic Ford 8N tractor originally made in the late 1940s. New Holland’s Rory Chisholm says the tractor features a modern drive line with the latest innovations. “So its a marriage of two things that results in quite a stunning looking tractor,” Rory said. “We realized that we had this tractor in our history that’s a link to our past so we decided to put a little of the new and a little of the old together and the end result was the Boomer 8N.”

Comfort and safety are features in the new tractor, with a shiny rollover bar and a cushioned seat modeled after the much less comfortable steel pan seats of the original.

Over 500,000 of the original Ford 8N tractors went into production and many of them are still in existence and hold a sense of nostalgia for lots of people who grew up on farms. The Boomer 8N will be going into production later this spring. The tractors will not necessarily be a limited run, but they will be numbered, and our friend Gene Hemphill is in negotiations right now with a certain celebrity vehicle buff to get serial number one in his garage.

Listen to an interview with Rory here nfms09-cnh-rory.mp3

You can also download the interview here: New Holland Boomer 8N (mp3).

NFMS 09 Photo Album

I spoke with Ed Barry, cash crop marketing manager for New Holland, and he told me that it’s not just horsepower that makes it the biggest. “It’s the largest cab, largest threshing area and largest cleaning area,” Ed said.

“We have a strong history in combines,” he said. “Model year 2010 will be our 35th year in the rotary combine business and our heritage has led us to the future.”

This evening, Farm Industry News will officially present a FinOvation award to New Holland’s CR9080 as one of the best innovations of 2008 designed to help producers farm more efficiently and more profitably.

Listen to an interview with Ed here nfms09-cnh-combine.MP3

You can also download the interview here: New Holland Combine (mp3).

Watch Ed’s presentation on New Holland combines at a Farm Industry News seminar:

NFMS 09 Photo Album

Yesterday evening, 5:30 pm:

This morning, with Andy Vance and Barry Nelson:

NFMS 09 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the National Farm Machinery Show
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John Deere has introduced a large volume of new tractors this year, ranging from 45 to 105 hp, to fit just about any need. I talked with Keith Hendrix with Deere who told me all about the new tractors that are part of the Drive Green caravan that Chuck has been busy following around the country.

“That ranges from our new 5D series, moving up to the 5E series, and the premium line of the new 5M,” Keith explains. “We have a tractor for every application for any specific need if you’re looking for 105 down to a 45 engine horsepower tractor.”

Listen to an interview with Keith here nfms09-jd-keith.mp3

You can also download the interview here: John Deere 5 Series (mp3).

Check out Precision Pays.com for more coverage of the show this week.

NFMS 09 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the National Farm Machinery Show
is being sponsored today by:

Vice president of public relations and media for the Kentucky State Fair Board Vicki Glass says the 44th annual show was sold out two months ago. “With the economy as it is, you might not expect that, but that’s the case and we are very pleased to have that much interest continue year after year,” Vicki says.

The show has an economic impact for the city of Louisville of more than $15 million and also includes the Championship Tractor Pull, sponsored by Syngenta.

Listen to an interview with Vicki here nfms09-vicki.mp3

You can also download the interview here: NFMS Vicki Glass (mp3).

Watch a brief video that I shot with Vicki while walking around the show and recording audio at the same time – which was a little challenging, to say the least!

Check out Precision Pays.com for more coverage of the show this week.

NFMS 09 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the National Farm Machinery Show
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Rob Rippchen, division marketing manager at John Deere seed in Moline, IL says this 120 foot planter is the next generation planter building off the DB90 introduced five years ago. “This planter will plant somewhere between 90 and 100 acres an hour,” Rob says. “Most growers will remember last spring when it was so wet and one of the easiest ways to improve productivity is to increase your working width.”

The huge machine was gathering a crowd early at the show on Wednesday. “There’s kind of a ‘wow’ factor,” said Rob. “It’s so wide it can’t even unfold all the way in our booth.” But he says the outer four row units fold over on each end so it is still the same transport width as the DB90 and just about six foot longer in transport length.

Rob says John Deere will have a limited number of the new planters running in the fields this spring and will start taking orders for the big boy this summer.

Listen to an interview with Rob here nfms09-jd-rob.mp3

You can also download the interview here: New John Deere Planter (mp3).

Watch Rob explain some of the DB120 features here:

Check out Precision Pays.com for more coverage of the show this week.

NFMS 09 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the National Farm Machinery Show
is being sponsored by:

If the economy is bad, you wouldn’t know it here. More than 800 exhibitors are expected in the 27 acres of exhibit space here. I am a “newbie” to the show, so I am looking forward to getting out there and seeing all the new stuff on the floor.

Stay tuned here and at Precision Pays.com for complete coverage of the show this week – while Chuck is in Orlando for the Weed Science Society convention.

Photo album is started here – check back regularly for new sights from the show!
NFMS 09 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the National Farm Machinery Show
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Gary Vermeer started the business with a cousin in 1948, after inventing a wagon hoist five years earlier, which made it easier to unload corn. From that small operation, the company has grown over the past 60 years to an international organization that manufactures agricultural, construction, environmental, and industrial equipment. Today, Vermeer Corporation has industrial dealerships in over 60 countries and on every continent except Antarctica, in addition to hundreds of agricultural equipment dealers throughout the US. Vermeer’s business philosophy was, “Find a need. Fill that need with a product built to last. And simply build the best!”

A website has been established in honor of Gary and his lifetime of contributions – www.garyvermeer.com – that includes more information, including funeral arrangements and memorials for this farm machinery legend.

The new snow blades for skid steers (SBS Series) and tractor loaders (SBFL Series) remove snow from driveways, parking lots or other large areas. The snow blades are able to angle left or right for easier use and feature a 90” width and 3/8” x 6” cutting edge of 1044 steel.

Tom Applewood of Springfield IL says, �I�ve been farming for 30 years and this Hart Cart is one of the best tools I�ve ever bought.�

Hart Marketing has sold thousands of these utility vehicles and are projecting sales to more than double for 2008. A side-by-side comparison between Hart Cart Utility Vehicles and the other name brand vehicles revealed the Hart Cart indeed comes with many �extras�. For instance, most utility vehicles come with fewer options and charge more for each added accessory. The Hart Cart comes standard with a roof, windshield, 2000 lb winch, turn signals, headlights, brake lights, and a hydraulic dump bed to name a few.