Massive power and mini aids for Europe's farmers

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Farm machinery innovations in Europe this fall feature one of the biggest wheeled tractors in the normal market – but also drastic size reductions of mobile aids out in the fields

by NORMAN DUNN

Five hundred horses? No problem for Agco subsidiary Fendt, introducing one of the biggest tractors of its kind (four-wheeled and non-articulated) in European field trials this fall. The Bavarian-built Fendt 1050 Vario with Agco Continuously Variation Transmission (CVT) will probably cost around C$440,000 when it comes on the market at the end of 2015. The price will stop it from being a best-seller, but the company already reports interest from top-sized cropping units that continue to look for more power for pulling cultivator/drill trains with six metre working width and more.

This is Europe, however, which means massive traction machinery still has to negotiate narrow country lanes and a lot of other roadwork from one far-flung field to the next, and so the giant Fendt will come with a top speed of 60 kilometres per hour (37.5 m.p.h.) and with special axles allowing track width to be reduced to 150 centimetres.

Under the hood is a 12.4-litre, six-cylinder MAN engine. For the moment, Fendt admits to a limited market on this side of the Atlantic, probably not more than 1,000 units producing 500 h.p. and over for all makes. But farms are getting bigger.

Mini kick-starter
At the same time, there's a growing demand for smaller and lighter maintenance and repair equipment – stuff that can be easily carried miles across fields to where it's needed.  

A flat battery? No problem for the mini battery booster that fits into a jacket pocket and has just been launched by Germany's leading tool and accessory manufacturer, Würth.  Admittedly, the new mini kick-starter and battery charger probably couldn't manage to turn the flywheel of the giant Fendt just mentioned. But it has already proven to perform just fine with most smaller tractors and autos.

Cold kick-start power peaks at 400 amps, which means it can turn over any engine of up to three-litre capacity with a 12-volt network. The tiny 300-gram, 13 x 7.5 x 2.5-centimetre power pack can handle 20 cold starts when fully loaded. Plug in a USB and switch to charge mode and the mini power pack is gentle enough to breathe life back into empty cell phones, says the maker.

Hand-case welder
Tired of hitching up the mobile welding rig and dragging it miles across fields behind the pickup? Another small-scale farm aid launched by Würth is a compact, battery-powered electric and WIG welding rig that fits into a hand case. Measurements: 43 x 34 x 16 centimetres and 14 kilograms. The ASG 150 welder comes with a high-performance lithium-ion rechargeable battery (52.9 volts ) with 400 Watt hours capacity. The ASG is delivered with a special charger that can charge the battery in just 30 minutes, according to Würth.

Micro-monitoring with four cameras onboard
Another mini application, this time for monitoring crop disease, comes in the form of an eight-rotor drone. The Octocopter has been working in southern English wheat trials this summer, so far exclusively for the country's leading crop research stations, including Rothamsted Institute near London.  

Instead of being called a simple "drone," this new C$45,000 development goes under the name Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and it comes with four cameras fitted. One takes videos and stills and points forward, effectively pinpointing exactly where the Octocopter is. Another is a high-definition RGB camera and this joins a thermal infrared camera and one for collecting so-called hyperspectral images, each from a narrow wavelength range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The hyperspectral images are combined to give a three-dimensional data "cube" for processing and analyzing very small details of plant images. This growing season, the Octocopter and its cameras helped analyse crop health in several thousand plots in southern England. The flight paths have been low-level with all routes preprogrammed and have, says the Institute, allowed detailed evaluations to be made of growth progress and plant functions. BF