Farms and Farm Machinery Issue 383

To be marketed under the new Atrac brand, the range comprises the M4, based on the Goldacres G4 self-propelled sprayer, and the M8, based on the G8 sprayer. With the M4 able to handle a 6.5 tonne load and the M8 having a 10 tonne carrying capacity, Goldacres sales and marketing operations manager Stephen Richards says both tractors will be able to carry a wide range of accessories. “We essentially made it for the spreader market, though we think there are other markets it will get into – the sky is the limit!” The M4 offers a high clearance of 1,400mm and an optional four wheel drive that can be disengaged at the flick of a switch, and a rear axle differential with an internal lock feature if the going gets really…

Rovic Australia has launched a new range of 10 trailed spreaders with new features it says could represent a 30 per cent saving in fertiliser use. The company formerly produced spreaders under the Connor-Shea and later Grasslands brands in the 1990s, but is making a return to Australian agriculture with the new models. The four largest models in Rovic’s GSR spreader range, able to carry between 12.5 tonnes and 20 tonnes of fertiliser, come equipped with Rovic’s Twin Chain Technology, which Rovic’s director of Australian operations Peter Piddington says works with GPS positioning to give the farmer full control over the machine. “The majority of trailed spreaders on the market have a large wide belt, or a large wide chain, whereas we have a split chain, so a chain on the right and…

John Deere will make automated steering posible for a range of older equipment with the release of its new AutoTrac Controller 300 after-market guidance system. John Deere precision ag marketing manager John Mishler says the AutoTrac system can help reduce skips and overlaps in spreading, seeding and spraying. “Now almost any producer can add guidance to their machines without having to trade vehicles, or more easily add it to non-Deere or smaller tractors to reap the productivity, accuracy and efficiency benefits precision guidance provides,” he says. “More importantly, customers can customise automated steering to the level of precision they choose based on their specific requirements, resulting in a package that best fits their operation without having to learn multiple user interfaces.” The AutoTrac Controller 300 system is customisable to different 2WD and 4WD tractors…

A new large square baler and disc cultivator were among a series of highlights for dealers at Kuhn’s second ever Australian Demonstration Day, held outside Naracoorte, South Australia. Over 400 dealers and contractors attended the Kuhn Farm Machinery Expo, exceeding the attendance at the company’s 2017 event, travelling to see over 30 of Kuhn’s cutting-edge hay, silage, tillage, spraying, spreading and feed mixing machines. Speaking at the event, Kuhn Australia managing director Bruno Fetiveau said the expo gave customers and dealers a chance to learn from the company’s technical product specialists, and to see the machines work in real world conditions. “Kuhn remains committed to delivering exclusive knowledge, information and insight about how our products can make a real difference to our customers farming operation,” he said. While there were many pieces of equipment…

A linkage machine that can turn straw, hay or Lucerne into pellets in the field has been launched in Australia after being available in Europe for many years, and fodder experts say it could be a gamechanger. The Krone Premos 5000 collects cut fodder with less than 16 per cent moisture, gathering the crop with a 2.35m Camless pick-up before feeding it through an 800mm rotor to a feed conveyor. From there, the fodder is conveyed through the rotor to a feed conveyor and then through two matrix rollers. The rollers compress the material and force it through 16mm diameter holes together with water or vegetable oil, producing pellets of between 15mm and 40mm in length. The finished pellets are then loaded into a five-tonne bin, where they are cooled before they can be…

Hay bales have been a hot commodity in Australia over the past year, with the prices getting higher and the bales getting bigger over the course of 2019. But transporting hay from the bale to the mouths of hungry livestock, on everything from feedlots to family farms, is not always an easy process – and more and more farmers are turning to hay grinders to make fodder more appealing to cattle. Valton Feeding Solutions sales and service manager Leigh Byron says with the change in approach, the need for hay grinders is rising, and the higher the capacity the better. For that reason, Byron and the team at Valton have taken on the distribution of the Mighty Giant model 2015 – a power take-off (PTO)-driven tub grinder, which its manufacturers say is the…