Farms and Farm Machinery Issue 410

O’Connors, the largest Case IH dealer in Australia and New Zealand, has announced the acquisition of three more Case IH dealerships. The full Sunrise Ag dealerships in Swan Hill and Ouyen and the Case IH broadacre component of the Mildura outlet have been purchased by O’Connors, taking the company from 12 to 15 locations and expanding its reach into north-west Victoria. The deal is expected to be finalised in early May. O’Connors chief executive officer Gareth Webb says the Sunrise Ag dealerships were a good fit for the business and the expansion helped reinforce the strength of the O’Connors network. “The Sunrise Ag location at Ouyen represents a strong broadacre farming area where we have considerable knowledge and experience, while Mildura and Swan Hill have more agricultural diversity where we can work to…

Israeli food production company Aleph Farms, the first business to grow cultivated beef steaks, has announced it is expanding its product line to include a unique platform for cell-cultured collagen production. The company says its strategy is to develop an alternative to intensive animal farming that will supplement sustainable, but less productive, livestock agriculture practices. “The cellular agriculture industry has made greater promises to replace a large part of intensive animal farming practices, which make up to 70 per cent of the global meat production,” Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia says. “Cultivated meat, however, is only part of that solution as meat represents just 30–35 per cent of the cow that is slaughtered. The rest include many other valuable by-products. To achieve our vision, we need to provide alternatives to the…

An extension of New Holland’s variable chamber round baler offering, this premium round baler is a versatile, high-performance and durable machine that delivers excellent bale shape in all crops and conditions, the company says. Production has commenced and a limited number of units are expected to be available to the Australian market for the 2022 hay season. New Holland product segment manager for fodder conservation Sune Nielsen says the Pro-Belt baler has been built from the ground up with a completely new bale formation design. “Reliability and durability were at the top of the list for the Pro-Belt’s engineering scope of development, adding to New Holland’s already strong position in the hay industry,” he says. “The variable chamber will be available in a 165cm and 190cm maximum bale size configurations, both in a rotor…

Biotech company VRM Biologik has teamed up agronomy and farm data group FarmLab to expand VRM Biologik’s reach to the US. The companies will map the processes of farmland restoration. FarmLab allows farmers to isolate specific areas on their land to gather accurate data and measure the impacts of enhanced soil quality, improved biodiversity and changes in flora and fauna against the backdrop of a wider area. VRM Biologik says its technology for improving carbon sequestration and soil moisture is a world-first. This technology gives farmers the ability to grow in dry periods, without chemical inputs, and supports farmers in regenerating their soil. Pilots will begin in Colorado, which has 31.8 million acres (12.9 million hectares) of farmland. The technology will allow farmers to accurately collate data over very large areas. “We are thrilled to…

The price increases come as Mitsubishi rolls out upgrades to the range, with the first of the new units expected to be delivered mid-year. The 22.5 model year updates will apply to diesel cab-chassis, GLX and GSR pick-ups built from April, though the model line-up itself remains unchanged. The top of the range Mitsubishi Triton GSR dual-cab pick-up, which will increase in price from $53,240 to $55,690, will get a new high-end Smartphone link display audio system, complete with a 7-inch (18cm) touchscreen, six speakers, digital radio and Bluetooth connectivity. This high-end system also features the Multi Around Monitor, which provides a 360-degree bird’s eye view of the vehicle to assist manoeuvring, and a HDMI port for additional connectivity. The Triton diesel cab-chassis and GLX pick-up models, which will increase in price by $1,000,…

Australian agricultural technology company Goanna Ag will develop a hazardous weather warning system in collaboration with two major research bodies, in a bid to help minimise spray drift. The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC) have jointly allocated $5.5 million to Goanna for the development of a system that will provide real-time weather data and alerts to growers and spray operators about the presence of temperature inversions. Hazardous surface temperature inversions occur when air temperature increases with height from the ground surface, leaving a layer of cool air trapped below warm air. In this situation droplets can remain suspended in the inversion layer in concentrated form and be carried significant distances from the target area. Currently regulations do not permit spraying agricultural chemicals when hazardous surface…