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.
Cultivation and spraying specialist Amazone recently delivered its 75,000th sprayer unit.
It was a 36m-boomed, self-propelled Pantera 4502 that rolled off the production line at the company’s Bramsche factory site, situated just north of Osnabruck in northern Germany.
The machine didn’t have to travel too far to its new owner, just a hop over the English Channel to a 1,350ha property in the south-east of England. This is where sprayer will be put to work in a cropping programme that includes continuous winter wheat, marrowfat peas, rye and maize for both forage and grain.
Already a Pantera user since September 2015, the farm’s previous 40m-boomed 4502 clocked up 5,000 hours in seven years. Although the farm owners looked at other self-propelled sprayer units on the market, they choose Amazone again.
They said that its narrow road width, 50km/h road speed and improved suspension makes it ideal for work on contract farms further away from home base.
“All of this, alongside excellent service from Amazone and our local dealer.”
Entering the sprayer market in 1969, the first Amazone sprayers were the mounted S range. These machines were available with tank capacities of 400 litres and 600 litres.
Today, the complete range of Amazone sprayers are produced at a new, purpose-built assembly facility at 20ha site at Bramsche.
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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