The saying once was roller balers for grass and belt balers for straw...

With the silly, busy season about to happen – and with margins tighter than ever – it might be worth considering a few salient points to save fuel in the trusty farm tractor.

It used to be said 'roller balers for grass and belt balers for straw', but advances in design over the last decade mean that either seems capable of dealing with all crops.

Witch tractors of 250-300hp favoured by many cropping farmers and contractors it's no surprise to see Case IH launch the Optum series.

Setting tyre pressures correctly, even for a humble farm tractor, is important for reducing compaction, precluding shallow ruts in difficult conditions and cutting fuel consumption.

While Subaru has never hit the top of the tree in the race for market share, it has over the years developed a loyal following in New Zealand, not least among those who saw the benefits the brand’s all-wheel drive (AWD) offered over its mainstream rivals.

They are the big black knobbly things that stop the bottom of the tractor hitting the ground.

THE SUBARU Legacy X could be seen as the answer to a question nobody was asking: a high-riding all-wheel-drive (AWD) sedan.

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.