Well known for making power harrows, rotary hoes, sub-soilers, mulchers and combination drills, Alpego has for 45 years used Swedish steel in delivering machines of high quality and durability.

With the annual value of the New Zealand agricultural machinery industry put at a conservative $1.3 billion, and agriculture in general being the key driver of NZ’s GDP, you’d think it would be easy to recruit youngsters into the industry.

Many tractor manufacturers are talking about autonomous operation, most going about it by modifying existing products.

Automation seems to know no boundaries and the latest manufacturer to show its hand – CNH Industrial – sees self-driving tractors as the future for boosting production and improving productivity.

Safety comes high on the agenda of many tractor developers and manufacturers, but many industry watchers don’t realise that much of the technology shown at annual shows and exhibitions comes from industrial giant ZF.

On a typical farm, ask the farmer what he loves most and he may answer: wife, dog and quad; and if the first is out of earshot the order may differ.

A UK research company suggests the market for agricultural robots and drones, now about $3 billion annually, will balloon to $10b by 2022.

Shane and Marie Donovan of Taihape needed to replace their combination mowers, with a pre-requisite that the replacements could deal with ground steep and rough.

New hydrofan washdown nozzles launched four months ago are selling in numbers exceeding expectations, says Peter Reid, director of Numedic.

Farm transport has seen many changes over the years, from two wheelers to quads and currently the popular UTV or side-by-side.