Tractor test
Fendt 724 Vario
Mr Versatile
Fendt price tags have long had a propensity to make the eyes water, yet many owners argue the marque’s strong residuals mean that owning a Fendt is no more expensive than any other premium-brand tractor. To maintain those healthy used values, Fendts need to perform and, just as crucial, be reliable. We see how one 4,400hr 724 is faring
Practical test
Cub Cadet vs JCB vs Kioti UTVs
From all parts of the globe
This year’s comparison centres on three diesel UTVs costing under £11,000. Which serves up the best blend of performance, comfort and capability?
Sulky X50 Econov fertiliser spreader
Chips with everything, sir?
What spreads at widths up to 50m, is all-electronic and features GPS section control? Why, French maker Sulky’s new X50 Econov, introduced at last year’s Agritechnica and handled here by RECO. We used an example of this high-capacity, intelligent twin-disc machine last spring
Driving impression
Amazone Cayron 200 V 5+1 plough
Let’s roll over some furrows
Has Amazone lost the product development plot? With all the current buzz surrounding strip-till and direct-drilling, it would seem a strange decision for a manufacturer to design a new range of reversible ploughs — from scratch. Well, that’s exactly what Amazone has gone and done. Say hello to the Cayron
Vicon RV 5216 variable-chamber round baler
An Italian job
Vicon has learned a lot about its round baler line-up in the four years it has been pushing the Italian-built product. For 2015 the variable-chamber models are enjoying a facelift, the key change being to their net application system
Claas Volto 1100 tedder
Starry days
As mowers get ever wider the rest of the harvesting chain has had to grow to cope. Take Claas’s Volto 1100 for instance, which boasts 10 rotors and a broad 10.7m working width, all on a mounted machine
Let’s roll over some furrows
Amazone Cayron 200 V 5+1 plough:
Has Amazone lost the product development plot? With all the current buzz surrounding strip-till and direct-drilling, it would seem a strange decision for a manufacturer to design a new range of reversible ploughs — from scratch. Well, that’s exactly what Amazone has gone and done. Say hello to the Cayron
Livestock equipment
Cow housing from scratch
Keep it simple
If the need or opportunity to create new, integrated dairy cow housing and milking facilities on a greenfield site arises, it’s well worth taking plenty of time to firstly define exactly what’s required and then, to ensure as far as possible, you ‘get it right’. This is the view of one Lancashire family business, which has done just that
Used machinery
John Deere T-series combines
Walker combines with rotary attitude
Launched in time for the 2008 season, John Deere T-series combines feature a so-called ‘TTS — Tangential Tine Separation’ system. In outline, TTS adds a tine separator set-up behind the drum, boosting active separation area to 2.80m2 on the five-walker and 3.36m2 on the six-walker machines. Otherwise similar to the W models introduced at the same time, the T-series has since taken over as Deere’s
Workshop
Kverneland Accord Optima precision seeder refurb
Stay precisely single
Has your precision seeder become a little less precise than it should be? If set-up tweaks can’t restore order, a rebuild will. Phil Vickery, south-west area manager for Kverneland Group UK, shows how to strip and assess Accord’s long-serving Optima unit
From the workshop
Simple solutions to perennial problems
Keeping fuel safe, creating a cheap concrete mixer and building a cultivator to loosen firmed headlands are all topics within this month’s Simple Solutions, selected by Mike Donovan
Machine management
Self-propelled takes the lead
Best of both worlds
Tractor-powered or self-propelled? It’s a dilemma that’s been keenly debated almost since ‘wheeled’ power took over from ‘horse’ power. Capital spend, fuel consumption, field compaction, daily outputs and even kudos with customers were all factors for a Dutch slurry contractor when it came to making a choice
Around the world
Stationary engines make a comeback / Super 88 lands in Australia / Market slows / Clever injection for manure
Report
Contractor price guide 2015
UK contractor charges
This is the National Association of Agricultural Contractors’ (www.naac.co.uk) charge guide, based on info supplied by its members last spring. The figures are only a guide and assume a red diesel price of 70p/litre. Prices will vary according to UK region, size of job, type of equipment used etc
Case IH Quadtrac goes south
Pole Position
Brrrr….While the South Pole may have been discovered over 100 years ago, today there are as many as 200 people living in and exploring a region that remains one of the most hostile environ- ments on our planet. All of these researchers need to be provided with supplies, which are shipped in by… tractors?
EIMA 2014
Big bash in Bologna
The 41st edition of the Italian EIMA machinery show covered 30ha and attracted over 1,800 manufacturers, who were understandably keen to display their wares to best effect to the 200,000-odd visitors. It all made for quite a spectacle at the event’s regular home in Bologna
EuroTier review
German treats
November was a busy month for European agricultural equipment shows. Kicking things off was EuroTier. This major biennial livestock machinery event hosted 2,360 exhibitors from 49 countries, with 30,000 of the 156,000 visitors travelling to Hanover from outside Germany
Vehicles
Fiat Panda Cross
Pocket battleship
What does it take to make a Panda Cross? No, not a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. ‘Cross’ is the moniker for the latest and most upmarket version of Fiat’s Panda 4×4
Under the hammer
Clarke & Simpson collective sale
Brisk trade at second collective
Clarke & Simpson held its second machinery collective at its auction centre, near Wickham Market, in Suffolk. The firm reported that 90% of the kit was sold
