Top Ag Achievements of 2013

Putting together a top five list of agricultural technology equipment achievements is practically an impossible task. Every single piece of equipment that modern farmers use today require thousands of brilliant engineers to get to the level of performance that we now take for granted. These particular top five agricultural and farm machinery equipment achievements come from videos that were viewed most frequently, suggesting that farmers consider this technology to be key for them. Thank you to the good folks at AgWeb.com for putting together the video list. You can see the original list here.

Number 1: Kinze Electric-Drive Vacuum Meter

This is among the most advanced seed metering systems currently available. With the cost of seed becoming an increasing portion of farm expense, and Monsanto with other seed controllers increasing prices regularly and painfully, the ability of a farmer to accurately meter seeds into the soil over large acreage goes directly into profit on their bottom line.

Number 2: New Equipment for Getting Tractors Out of Mud (A serious issue with the increased rainfall in many parts of the world).

Though this would seem to be old technology, there are now new systems and accessories for getting farm machinery out of the mud. There have recently been a rash of tractors getting stuck in areas that were formerly relatively stable soil bases. Using standard chains for automobiles and trucks, and standard tow straps will not only fail in pulling a tractor out of the mud but also can cause serious safety problems when those over taxed chains and straps snap and spring back into the operator.

The new accessories and techniques for getting tractors out of the mud include much higher capacity chains and especially straps that are capable of pulling full-sized industrial farm machinery. This is a relatively new requirement because the need for getting this type of equipment out of the mud has never been quite as extreme as it is today.

Number 3: Introducing the Tribine Combine

The standard combine has large wheels up front and a small set of wheels in the back with a small axle, the Tribine gives the operator two full sized wheels both front and back plus four-wheel-drive and the ability to house a full 12 rows of corn equaling a semi trailer load in the huge storage bin. On top of that, the Tribine is capable of harvesting most of the major row crops including soy and corn. A main feature of the Tribine is that it has the ability to offload without needing a go between cart because it can evacuate its container directly into a truck.

The Tribine has turned combine technology on its head and promises to become an important combine competitor going forward.

Number 4: The John Deere MY14 8R Tractor

The John Deere MY14 8R tractor brings all the latest in transmission technology, operator comfort as well as efficiency, full integration with modern farming software and GPS systems, while offering raw power for tackling almost any farm requirements from pulling to tilling with up to 370 hp available. The 8R included FarmSight integration and FinalTier4 compliance. It has all the features any farmer is likely to ever need now and into the foreseeable future.

Number 5: Roll-Belt 560 Round Baler from New Holland

This is pure mechanical engineering agricultural technology poetry! The baler quickly and efficiently sweeps up hay rows and produces uniform, tight bales with no more effort than required to push the door open button. Not that this really new tech, but New Holland has made it a smoother and more reliable operation for those cattle farmers needing large round hay bales for their herd.

2013 brought a leap forward in combine technology and tractor software integration. 2014 will see line extensions for all of these great new features and more.