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.
Grimme, the manufacturer of specialist potato, beet and vegetable machinery for cultivation, planting and harvesting has released a new series of mounted WV vegetable windrowers.
Available in working widths of 1.4m, 1.65m and 1.8m, the compact units feature a unique, spring-loaded bogie suspension system for fast, efficient and clean windrowing.
Landpower sales and product support manager – GRIMME, Nigel Prattley says crop quality starts with a gentle lift and intake of the crop.
“The WV gently lifts onions, cleans them on two main webs and then places them in an even swath on a consolidated surface, so that the crop can dry before storage.”
Available as rubber or brush versions, the machine’s intake paddles are extremely flexible and move upwards to reduce the pressure on the crop if crop flow increases, while also preventing the crop from rolling back when the machine is lifted, thus maximising marketable crop yield.
From the intake, the crop is transferred to the main webs for cleaning over first and second webs, which can be equipped with either mechanical or hydraulically-driven adjustable agitators.
Under the machine, the bogie system produces a level and firm ground surface to prevent onions from sinking back into the soil after discharge, via a PVC crop placement chute.
Each assembly consists of two support wheels and a bed roller, which maintains constant ground pressure without ‘bulldozing’ soil in front of the bed roller.
“This allows the onions to dry more evenly and helps to minimise the amount of soil taken into the machine during the second phase of the harvest process,” Parry explains.
All models can be adapted to different harvesting conditions by means of various intake units and other options, including a buffer bunker that prevents the loss of crop on the headland, while also providing more space for opening fields.
Red meat farmers are urging the Government to act on the growing number of whole sheep and beef farm sales for conversion to forestry, particularly carbon farming.
The days of rising on-farm inflation and subdued farmgate prices are coming to an end for farmers, helping lift confidence.
A blockbuster year and an exciting performance: that's how Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Director General, Ray Smith is describing the massive upsurge in the fortunes of the primary sector exports for the year ended June 2025.
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.
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