farm equipment

The pedal-driven Bicitractor is "a green, silent, healthy alternative" for small vegetable farms that can't afford, or don't want, a conventional tractor, says Makezine. "Created by farmers for farmers, it performs a variety of agricultural tasks, working the soil to a maximum depth of 5 cm, which is popular with the no-till farming movement.

David Simmons was the first dairy farmer in Newfoundland to install a robotic milking parlor for this cattle. He "is just one of many who are turning to cutting edge technology" to monitor livestock health, says the Toronto Globe and Mail.

With commodity prices down, sales of used farm equipment are drying up as farmers guard their checkbooks, says DTN. The loss of "bonus" depreciation, which allowed a faster write-off of equipment purchases, also deters sales.

With farm income on the wane, U.S. farmers "are increasingly leasing equipment instead of buying it," says Reuters. It quotes an analyst who says some producers probably are selling equipment and using leases for replacements.

Agricultural bankers in 10 states in the Midwest and Plains expect a 15-percent decline in farm equipment sales this year, says a survey by Creighton University, in Omaha.

Livestock producers are buying a lot of tractors these days, the result of high cattle and hog prices, while sales falter for the big tractors and self-propelled combines used by grain farmers, says AgWeb.

"While high-end prosthetics are advancing by leaps and bounds, devices that can hold up to farming remain elusive. And the need is strong, as farming remains one of the most dangerous professions around," writes Rose Eveleth at Modern Farmer.

The world's largest farm equipment maker, Deere and Co, says, "Equipment net sales in the United States and Canada decreased 10 percent for the quarter and 8 percent for the year" in a report on this year's business.

During the agricultural boom that started in 2006, farm income zoomed and many producers upgraded their equipment. Data from two major farm states, Illinois and Kansas, shows the impact of the expenditures.

Farmers modernized their tractors and combines during the agricultural boom that started in 2006, says analyst David Widmar at the blog Agricultural Economic Insights.

The world's largest farm equipment manufacturer said sales were down by 5 percent worldwide - down 8 percent in the United States and Canada - in the third quarter - due to lower commodity prices...

Farmland prices fell for the seventh month in a row in the Rural Mainstreet Index compiled by Creighton University, but at a slower rate.

Farm groups, seed companies and equipment manufacturers met in Kansas City to discuss common rules for gathering, use and ownership of Big Data without reaching a conclusion, says Reuters.

The world's largest farm equipment maker, Deere and Co., said on Tuesday it will begin sales later this year of a "fully autonomous tractor that's ready for large-scale production," but limited for the moment to tillage. "The machine combines Deere's 8R tractor, TruSet-enabled chisel plow, GPS guidance system, and new advanced technologies," said Deere, which unveiled the autonomous tractor at a consumer technology show in Las Vegas.