Farming smarter with technology
The National Fieldays is an annual fixture in the farming calendar: it draws in thousands of farmers, contractors, and industry professionals from across the country.
Five years ago, agricultural machinery specialist Lemken acquired the Dutch company Steketee B.V and expanded its crop care product portfolio with implements for mechanical weed control and future-oriented camera-assisted machine guidance.
The full integration of the crop care business will be completed during the coming months and all products will take come in the more familiar blue Lemken colour scheme.
Increasing interest in mechanical weeding solutions has seen sales triple in recent years, necessitating a move by the company to a new site to increase production capability. There is also the likelihood of the current workforce of 60 people doubling in the coming years.
Recently, Lemken released details of its first weeder harrow to round off its range of mechanical weed control implements.
The Thulit harrow is said to break new ground, with four beams and eight rows of harrow tines.
The tine pressure can be continuously adjusted to up to five kilograms on the move, resulting in a precise job, particularly during the early/ sensitive crop growth stages.
Tines are arranged with a spacing of 31.25mm to ensure blockagefree work, using stable, true-to-track, wear-free tine bearings to ensure optimum weed removal.
A straightforward quickchange system makes it easy to replace harrow tines. The Thulit features precise and continuous ground contour. Following with consistent tine pressure, making it a versatile implement – even on uneven ground and operating in ridge grown crops.
Generous clearance height and smart design removes the need for the usual springs and the chances of plants getting caught beneath the frame.
The hydraulic system also supports width control within the frame sections to avoid multiple passes across parts of the field.
A key part of the design brief was to minimise frame weight and has been achieved by reducing the number of moving parts, allowing Thulit to be operated on smaller tractors with lower lifting capacities.
A further benefit of the reduced componentry is that the driver also has a clear view of the harrow tines allowing a better oversight of the final work results.
The Thulit harrow will initially be available in early 2024 in limited quantities with working widths of six and nine metres
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says the 2025 Fieldays has been one of more positive he has attended.
A fundraiser dinner held in conjunction with Fieldays raised over $300,000 for the Rural Support Trust.
Recent results from its 2024 financial year has seen global farm machinery player John Deere record a significant slump in the profits of its agricultural division over the last year, with a 64% drop in the last quarter of the year, compared to that of 2023.
An agribusiness, helping to turn a long-standing animal welfare and waste issue into a high-value protein stream for the dairy and red meat sector, has picked up a top innovation award at Fieldays.
The Fieldays Innovation Award winners have been announced with Auckland’s Ruminant Biotech taking out the Prototype Award.
Following twelve years of litigation, a conclusion could be in sight of Waikato’s controversial Plan Change 1 (PC1).
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