Tractor, harvester IT comes of age
Over the last halfdecade, digital technology has appeared to be the “must-have” for tractor and machinery companies, who believe that bringing IT to tractors and farming will offer its customers huge benefits.
The Kirwee-based site has quickly become the "go-to" event for those looking to research the latest agricultural technology, alternating with the South Island Field Days, based at Waimumu, near Gore.
Adopting a 'can do' attitude that other event holders would do well to adopt, the combination of large-scale static exhibits and an enlarged working demonstration area certainly grabbed the largely rural visitors' imaginations.
The permanent site has some metalled roadways, but on day 1 and the morning of day 2, gumboots were obligatory due to the mud. Exhibitors and visitors alike appeared to be in a good frame of mind, despite the best efforts of the bad weather gods.
Most exhibitors were suggesting that there might be an air of caution when considering capital purchases. However, while there looked to be a slowdown in the tractor market for the start of the year, dealers were still reporting deliveries of previously ordered units that had been subjected to longer lead times since Covid.
Some manufacturer reps suggested that things had dropped off since October/November, probably caused by increased input costs and bad weather. But over the last few weeks, things in Mid-Canterbury were a little rosier with farmers coming out of the "harvest mindset" and grain payments arriving in bank accounts.
The first day highlight of the event was the agricultural innovation awards, with the Supreme gong going to the Eco-Pond system from Ravensdown. The joint Lincoln University-Ravensdown developed technoology is a treatment system capable of removing almost all methane emitted from dairy farm effluent ponds. It is now on the market as an emerging mitigation technology. Estimates suggest that if all dairy farms adopted the technology the sector's total farm methane emissions could be reduced by 4-5%.
The runner up, another Canterbury based innovation, was the Ruts Plus Pivot Rut Filler. This was developed to help remediate centre pivot runs, by utilising the soil in situ without requiring any new material needing to be brought onto farm.
Day 2 started off with the same chilly blast from the south, but cleared to sunny skies by lunchtime to allow the working demonstrations to proceed. This saw manufacturers demonstrate mowers, rakes and baler-combi in some rather damp lucerne. There were also the big guns to harvest forage maize grown specifically for the event and subsoilers and soil looseners to show their benefits.
A hard look at the alternate-year frequency that works so well for Kirwee and Waimumu surely needs to be on the radar of the North Island-based events, alongside a move to practical real-life demonstrations, which always draw a large crowd when engines fire up.
