When it first arrived in 2005, the Nissan Navara ST-X set a new benchmark for utes.

The trick to driving a Kawasaki Mule down a near vertical slope is to hold your nerve and keep one foot tickling the brake pedal, while the other foot keeps enough throttle on to engage the CVT transmission.

WHILE quad bike accidents, some of them fatal, continue to make headlines, a North King Country farmer has modified his bike to keep himself out of the statistics.

The Hunterville Lions Club plans to raise $50,000 for a room at the new $18m Ronald McDonald house being built in Wellington and so organised a 4WD trip over some of the iconic properties of the Inland Patea, the hinterland between Taihape and Napier.

The latest Axial-Flow combines ensure improved productivity, economy and easy operation, claims manufacturer Case IH.

The newest piece of equipment at the South Island Field Days had to be the latest model fixed chamber baler from Feraboli, the Maxima Pro 120.

A name synonymous with Ploughing in New Zealand is Alan Wallace, now of Te Awamutu, who was the first New Zealander to win a World Ploughing Championship held in Eire in 1981.

ONE OF the bigger bits of kit at South Island Field Days was the Pottinger Jumbo 6010 self loading wagon on the Origin Agroup stand and owned by McStay Contracting of Woodlands.

With bumper crops of maize silage around this year the only downside is the task of throwing old tyres onto the stack, and keeping pukekos out.

When trikes and quads first appeared on farms they were primarily for all terrain transport – fairly basic and with moderate power.