Stihl Launches BT140, Its First Battery-Powered Auger
With battery tools becoming more widespread and more importantly, productive and reliable, it was only time before we saw augers or post-hole borers.
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.
Alliance Group's $16 million programme to install innovative heat pump systems at its Otago and Southland processing plants wins a New Zealand Energy Excellence Award after cutting annual emissions by more than 24,000 tonnes of CO₂e.
The arable sector losing good people and land is a major concern for the 2026 Arable Farmers of the Year, Mid Canterbury seed growers John and Mel McCaw.
The terrible floods that hit the Wairarapa may have subsided, but the danger to farmers still exists, according to local Federated Farmers president Rob Hickson.
New Zealand's Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) encourages afforestation while not achieving climate goals, says a new report released by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton.
Are you ready for El Nino? That’s the question asked by Beef+Lamb NZ’s Ian Tarbotton who leads B+LNZ’s farm extension service.
Bigger, bolder salads packed with colour, crunch and flavour are making headlines overseas — and the arrival of fresh spring vegetables means New Zealanders can now get chopping too, creating their own Great Kiwi Spring Salad.

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