Posts Tagged ‘Massey Ferguson’

The newest assisted-steering technology from AGCO, Auto-Guide 3000, offers integration across a range of agricultural equipment brands.  Auto-Guide 3000 is part of AGCO’s larger Fuse™ initiative that encompasses all aspects of AGCO’s technology offerings. It will enable farmers to optimize their farms through current and future AGCO products and services.  To learn more about Fuse, click here.

The new system is also compatible with all GLONASS satellites, in addition to WAAS, OmniSTAR XP, G2 and HP subscription, and RTK GNSS signals. In fact, its high quality and reliability were driven by extensive testing at nine different AGCO manufacturing sites around the globe.

“Auto-Guide 3000 has been the most extensively tested guidance product that has come from AGCO to date,” says Matt Rushing, vice president, product management, AGCO Advanced Technology Solutions (ATS) and Electronics Functional Group (EFG). “It’s a solution that both customers and dealers can place a high level of confidence in.”

Ease of use is key, notes Rushing. “AGCO has taken steps to design its next generation of guidance solutions to be simple to operate.” With Auto-Guide 3000, he adds, “it’s also fully scalable from sub-meter to centimeter accuracy.”

It’s getting to the point that assisted steering is a standard requirement for most large farmers in North America. Steering and guidance are the most basic precision-ag functions and are the foundation for almost every operation in the growing cycle.

One of the greatest benefits of the Auto-Guide 3000 is that it can be integrated right into the same C1000 tractor monitor that the operator uses to control his tractor, White planter or Hesston® by Massey Ferguson baler. The system also features straight-line, pivot and contour modes, and works with the C2100 monitor in Massey Ferguson combines.

This eliminates the need for an extra monitor in the cab and helps the operator focus on the field, since all the information he or she needs is in one location. However, notes Rushing, for more advanced characteristics and functionality, an optional monitor is available that offers a larger screen and more dedicated functions.

Auto-Guide 3000 is currently available as a factory-installed option on select Massey Ferguson and other AGCO-made tractors and combines, and on Hesston by Massey Ferguson self-propelled windrowers. It’s also offered as an aftermarket add-on.

For more information about the new Auto-Guide 3000 system, contact your local AGCO dealer or visit myFarmLife.com/autoguide.

Red Tractor Week launches on Monday 16th September. Fronted by Alex James, musician and farmer, Red Tractor week is at the heart of the year round Trust The Tractor campaign. Watch out for the Red Tractor logo in your local supermarket or restaurant as the week is being supported far and wide by retailers, food service partners and of course, the most famous Red Tractor  – Massey Ferguson!

Red Tractor is all about food awareness and knowing where your food comes from. The Red Tractor logo on packs means your food or drink has met responsible production standards and is fully traceable back to independently inspected farms in the UK.

During the week, Red Tractor will be showing how food is assured from farm-to-fork via 7 real life farmer’s stories. Each day Red Tractor will be exploring a different farming sector (beef, lamb, poultry, pork, cereals, produce and dairy) so consumers can learn all about the quality foods available under the logo.

Food-wise, there will be a series of new and exclusive Red Tractor recipes, which showcase the best Red Tractor ingredients and the unveiling of a new map locator to help consumers find how accessible and easy to find Red Tractor is when eating out.

The Red Tractor logo is your short cut to food and drink that has been produced to strict standards of food safety, environmental protection, and animal welfare and with a clear guarantee of origin. Trust the Tractor is a national 12-month campaign that aims to maintain consumer trust in food by raising awareness of the assurance benefits that the Red Tractor logo provides.

Join Massey Ferguson in supporting this worthwhile campaign, which aims to highlight the importance of British farming. Keep an eye on our website and Facebook for latest news during the week and just simply look out for the Red Tractor logo!

Monte Innes

The beads of perspiration forming on Monte Innes’ forehead are swelling but not yet heavy enough to succumb to gravity. It is early August, a sunny 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and he’s leaning against a large square bale amid a 480-acre strip of land along the Ohio Creek in south-central Colorado.

“This is a real harsh area to work in,” says Monte, 43, who cuts and bales hay on nearly 6,000 acres tucked piecemeal into high, arid mountain valleys up to an hour-and-a-half apart. “The cold can settle into this valley here in the winter and it’ll be 35 below for days.

“Every valley has its own microclimate,” he continues, “and in the spring and summer, rainfall can vary tremendously from one hay field to the next all within a few miles of each other. You just kind of roll with the punches.”

On this particular day, however, the Ohio Creek Valley resembles paradise. Mountains rise up around us on three sides. Most grand are the Anthracites directly to the north.

Acres worth of grass have already been cut and laid down by Monte. In an adjacent field, his wife Julie is running the baler, dropping large rectangular blocks in her wake. Across the valley lush grasses—timothy, red top, brome and clover—fed by recent, unusually heavy rains, beg to be harvested.

Monte and Julie picked up an additional 900 acres worth of hay to farm this year, in large part because of their new Hesston® by Massey Ferguson WR9770 windrower. Their new customer had seen the clean, close cut the Inneses had achieved on a nearby property and realized his existing custom balers were leaving money in the fields.

“This is the third RazorBar disc header we’ve had, and we wouldn’t own anything else,” Monte says. “We get all the hay. It is a clean cut an inch from the ground.”

He also appreciates the speed with which the machine can travel. “It is awesome traveling down the road at 20 mph from one field to another,” he continues, noting how important that speed is when you’re working numerous scattered fields.

The windrower is quick in the field, too. “Today I cut 180 acres in six-and-a-half hours,” he says, “and I couldn’t have done that with any other machine.”

Their dealer, Luke Sharpe, of Sharpe Equipment and Irrigation in Salida, says that the care and ability of the operators also play a role in how well the couple do their jobs. “Monte and Julie work their butts off, and their hay quality is phenomenal,” he says.

The 2170XD

Their new Hesston by Massey Ferguson 2170 XD baler, which is being pulled by an MF6495 tractor, is making and saving them money, too. “Our new baler is a home run for us,” Monte says.

The 2170 XD produces bales that are denser, heavier. Because of that, they can now get 26 to 27 tons of hay on a semi trailer truck for shipment, rather than 22 tons.

“That saves us about 50 loads per season,” says Monte, “which saves us about $25,000 in shipping costs.”

As for the tractor, “it is phenomenal on fuel running the baler,” Monte says. “I kept calling the dealership saying, ‘I think the fuel gauge is wrong.’

“It wasn’t broke; it was just getting that much better fuel economy.”

Read the full story at http://www.myfarmlife.com/features/high-country-hay/.

A pair of Massey Ferguson tractors is helping specialist Anglesey sea-farming business, Menai Oysters and Mussels, process each year more than 70,000 oysters and five million mussels, all grown and cultivated naturally in the strong, nutrition-rich tidal currents of the Menai Strait.

The majority of the company’s shellfish production is sent to wholesale markets for purchase by hotels, restaurants and specialist fish shops and retailers with a growing number of sales being made also via the internet, mail-order and direct to customers who visit Menai Oysters and Mussels’ shop on a Sunday or Wednesday.

Purchased in late 2012 from nearby MF dealer, Emyr Evans, the two Massey Ferguson tractors – a 38hp MF 1540A and a 102hp MF 5440 – are being employed primarily within the initial washing processes used to remove silt, sand and other seabed detritus from the shells of the harvested oysters and mussels.

Initial cleaning of the oysters is carried out in trays using a hand-held pressure washer fed with fresh water by a high-capacity pump mounted on and driven by the power take-off shaft of the MF 1540A tractor. When all of the oysters have been washed, the tractor is driven a short distance to the mussel processing line where its external hydraulic system is connected to pumps powering the equipment’s water delivery and conveyor systems, simultaneously washing and grading the mussels as they move along the line.

Having been cleaned off externally, the shellfish is either immersed in tanks or placed on racks for further cleaning by purification using continuously recirculating seawater that has been sterilised by UV light. Minimum purification time is 42 hours to ensure that the filter feeding mechanism of the bivalve molluscs has adequate time to filter-out grit, sand and other internal impurities.

All of the seawater used by Menai Oysters and Mussels within its various washing and purifying processes is transported from the sea shore to the farm in a 6,000 litre vacuum tanker hauled by the MF 5440 tractor, the water being held in large storage tanks until needed. The two and a half miles each-way journey to and from the sea shore is made two or three times a week, depending on the season and demand for the firm’s oysters and mussels, all of which are sold to customers within the United Kingdom.

“We use a lot of sea water for purifying the shellfish so the tractor has to be ready to go at a moment’s notice,” explained marine biologist Shaun Krijnen, who founded Menai Oysters and Mussels in 1994 and maintains a full hands-on role in the business today. “When it’s not involved in shellfish production, the MF 5440 tractor is used for hedge-cutting, pasture mowing and local contract work, helping out nearby arable and livestock farmers.”

Bought primarily to power the oyster and mussel washing equipment, the smaller MF 1540 compact tractor spends up to 40 hours a week stationary with its engine running and power take-off shaft turning at a constant 540rpm.

“The MF 1540 replaced a larger agricultural-type tractor, consequently cutting our diesel usage by half,” commented Shaun. “The new tractor’s power output and auxiliary oil flow are far better matched to our existing equipment so everything runs more smoothly and economically. Having a foldable rollbar instead of a cab means also that we can lock the tractor away securely overnight.”

The larger MF 5440 tractor arrived on the farm two months later, further modernising the firm’s machinery fleet while splitting the existing workload over two new power units.

“As the business has grown, we have looked increasingly to invest in modern, reliable, cost-effective equipment,” explained Shaun. “Massey Ferguson was the obvious choice for us. Not only is our local dealer just 15 minutes away but we are benefiting from the company’s Manager 5-year extended warranty and servicing package that brings peace of mind to a business that relies very heavily on its machinery throughout the year.”

www.menaioysters.co.uk

Massey Ferguson has come home to the streets of Coventry with the purchase of two Massey Ferguson 5610s by Coventry City Council.

The two recently launched tractors, which are to carry out verge mowing in and around the city of Coventry, were purchased from the brand new Ufton branch of dealership Lister Wilder, which opened in May this year.

“The Council was looking for a tractor with excellent visibility to the side and front. With its waisted design and drop-nosed bonnet, the MF 5610 delivers just that,” explains Stuart Wyles, Lister Wilder Ufton Area Sales Manager.

Not only does the drop-nose give excellent views to the front and side, it also enables operators to see to the side of each wheel and the to the front linkage itself, a must for verge and grass mowing, adds Mr Wyles.

The other important requirement was for a high lift capacity, and with its uprated rear linkage rated at 4300kg, the MF 5610 is more than capable of handling the heavy reach mower as well as other implements it may be required to lift.

The tractors are fitted with front linkage, complete with PTO, to allow for both front and rear mowers, as well as cab suspension, electronic linkage control and 100 litre/minute hydraulics.

Powered by an AGCO POWER 3-cylinder, 3.3-litre common-rail engine, the 105hp MF 5610 also delivers in terms of performance and economy, putting out 413 Nm torque at just 1600rpm. Drive is provided by a Dyna-4 powershift transmission controllable either via the multifunctional joystick or shuttle.

“To make sure the tractor fitted all the criteria, we attached the council’s Bomford flail mowers to test visibility, performance and comfort for the operator,” he adds.

And indeed, the new, spacious, high-visibility cab was also a selling point for the tractor, giving the operator the equivalent working conditions to those in a high-hp tractor – a necessity for long hours verge mowing.

“We looked at a number of different options in this power bracket, but it was the Massey Ferguson that fitted the criteria. Visibility is crucial for both safety and ease of operation, as is lift capacity. Operator comfort and usability was another high priority for us,” explains Brian Martin, Fleet Service Supervisor at Coventry City Council.

“We’re delighted to have supplied these two tractors to Coventry. Obviously location had a bearing, as the new dealership at Ufton is only a short drive, but it’s equally great to see Massey Ferguson visible on the streets of the city again,” says Mr Wyles.