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.
Visitors to Fieldays 2023 can take note of machinery for nature conservation and grounds management at the AgriQuip stand (C24).
Balancing agricultural land use with care of the environment can be challenging but is not impossible.
Back in its homeland, a 2.8 metre Irish Major Cyclone rotary mower is helping the RSPB NI and its Countryside Land Management Service (CLMS), along with conservation groups and farmers, who are working together to protect natural habitats and indigenous biodiversity.
Part of the CLMS work is to control rushes and scrub around the Lough Beg National Nature Reserve in Northern Ireland.
“It is important that the dense rushes are controlled, and scrub is not given a chance to take over, which could potentially lose the very species and habitats for which it was designated,” says Paul Trimble, CLMS business manager at RSPB NI.
Farmers sharing the ground allow stock to graze the area during the summer period, and CLMS undertakes mechanical vegetation control using the Major Cyclone mower during the winter months.
“The Cyclone mower is more reliable and requires less power consumption than flail machines, which means lower fuel consumption and reduced carbon emissions,” says Trimble.
“They also leave a better, open stubble finish, that the waders find more acceptable for nesting.”
www.agriquip.co.nz
Farmgate lamb prices are down by 8%, beef cattle by 4.5% and farm expenditure up by 4.2%.
Kiwifruit growers are watchful but remain optimistic as concerns around the potential effects of the El Niño weather pattern this season.
Almond hulls sourced from Australian orchards may have the potential to help New Zealand cows reduce emissions, boost milk yield and lower input costs.
Striking a balance between meeting the needs of industry to speed up approval time for products but on the other hand ensuring that risks are properly assessed.
Surprised, humbled and quite thrilled. That’s the reaction of James Allen, one of the founding partners and now chief executive of AgFirst, on being made a life member of the Institute of Rural Professionals.

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