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Mark Dillon and his new MF 9560 harvester in action earlier this year.
It's safe to say that sales of combine harvesters in Southland are relatively few, so it’s interesting to hear of a new Massey Ferguson hitting the paddocks in February and making a big impact during the recent harvest for owners Mark and Sonia Dillon, Riversdale.
The Dillons purchase of the MF 9560 has seen a move up from an elderly MF865 and brother James’s equally elderly MF 750 to help complete the harvest.
With the home cropping farm and a contracting business, the machine did a mixed workload of barley, wheat and oats – amounting to around 600ha and dealing with the vagaries of Southland weather.
The heart of the machine is a 3.5m rotor mounted longitudinally in the chassis where it separates the grain from the straw with helical paddles, through a 12 section spring-loaded concave, to reduce chance of blockages. The rotor is fed by a feed drum accelerator that splits the crop flow into three streams to ensure the rotor is filled to capacity and the load is balanced. Once separated, the grain passes to a 6.1m2 cleaning area with a dual outlet fan.
Powers comes from the latest Agco Power/Sisu engine with a capacity of 9.8L and an output of around 460hp that boosts to 502hp for unloading on the move. The driveline consists of a four speed constant mesh unit coupled to a two stage hydrostatic ground drive unit, so effectively the operator has a choice of eight speeds to suit different field conditions, but more importantly the ability to shift from high to low in difficult conditions.
Grain goes into a 12,300L/9.5 tonne holding tank that unloads at 158L/sec.
Dillon says they were impressed with the machine’s output in the season just gone: it surpassed that of the two older machines by a long way.
“In one afternoon we cleared 30ha and 350 tonnes. In wheats we saw some big crops which were laid and the machine handled them well even though some samples were about 23% moisture. In barley we also saw some crops at 9-10t/ha that we thrashed with a rotor speed of 480rpm, but it still was gentle on the straw required for baling.”
Dillon says one big change was the move from a 16 foot header front to a 30 foot unit on the new machine, causing some trepidation about the undulating Southland terrain. This proved to be unfounded and was handled easily by the machine’s flex-front header.
“Harvest was a breeze and the impression of the machine is that of a rugged build, plenty of power, ease of maintenance with only nine belts and three chains on the whole machine.
“And it has a large comfortable cab, with fingertip controls for all functions and monitoring done through one touch screen that also incorporated the guidance system.”
AGCO has released details of the new SB.1436DB small square, or conventional baler, that rather unconventionally, produces two rows of bales per field pass, so doubling the output over a traditional single baler producing 14-by-18-inch bales.
Recently launched to complement the existing DM 8612 TL and DM 9614 TL machines, Massey Ferguson has added the heavy-duty 9614 TL and 10114 TL butterfly mowers to its DM range, with working widths of 9.6m and 10.1m respectively.
As a sign of the times, a sharp downturn in the global demand for tractors and machinery has seen some of the global players announcing lacklustre half yearly results.
Massey Ferguson has announced the launch of the new MF 9S Series, which includes six models with powers from 285hp to 425hp.
A tractor dealership celebrating 65 years selling Massey Fergusons, and other AGCO farm machinery, is still expanding, opening a new branch in Cromwell.
While healthcare itself got a $5.5 billion investment in Budget 2025, rural doctors are sounding the alarm about growing health inequities in rural New Zealand.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council says a new plan for managing the Wairoa River Bar will improve resilience for the Wairoa community in flood events.
Otago Regional Council is set to begin its annual winter farm flyovers in the next three weeks.
The Good Carbon Farm has partnered with Tolaga Bay Heritage Charitable Trust to deliver its first project in Tairāwhiti Gisborne.
Education union NZEI Te Riu Roa says that while educators will support the Government’s investment in learning support, they’re likely to be disappointed that it has been paid for by defunding expert teachers.
The Government says it is sharpening its focus and support for the food and fibre industry in Budget 2025.
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