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(Editor's Note: In most things in life, timing can be everything. Nowhere is that more true than in economic forecasting. When we polled our experts in mid-2007 for the Forecast [...]

Air management and airflow control are consistent problems for finishing systems because there are many variables, from filter loading to temperature and relative humidity Each of these variables affects air [...]

It may be a couple months or more before you head to the field, but don't let this window of opportunity to ready your planter pass by. Most of the [...]

When he built his new shop, Darrell Corcoran wanted a good hoist. Reluctant to spend $6,000, the Ottawa, Ill., farmer built a jib boom crane entirely from salvaged materials. The [...]

Seeds are not the only miracle components of the new green revolution. Rental markets for equipment are almost as remarkable PRACTICALLY everything needed to mechanise a farm can be rented [...]

Adopting precision ag technologies can seem more like a leap than a step. But as entry-level products become more affordable, upgrades easier to make and payback more apparent, many farmers [...]

Like most farmers, Rick Scott of Underwood, Iowa, needed to find a way to speed up harvest. After surveying the farm and paying attention to workflow, Scott determined the biggest [...]

Using precision ag products provides the test plot crew with greater confidence when approaching a challenging plot. To plant our silage plot that compares 30' rows and twin rows at [...]

Anything that depends on Mother Nature comes with delays, so there's no need to add downtime by taking longer than necessary to fill a planter. Here's how two farmers execute [...]

As auto-guidance technology advances and catches on, farmers who run older machines aren't being left in the dust. The John Deere AutoTrac Universal Steering Kit is compatible with many John [...]

In 2007 we reported on our long-term, corn-on-corn tillage studies in the Farm Journal Test Plots (January and February 2007 issues of Farm Journal). As we launch a new round [...]

Tim Bishop is always in a hurry. He has to be to keep up with his multiple enterprises. He is a Campbell Seed dealer, owns two gas stations and farms [...]

Views of farm life the way it was when grandpa grew up Four new books offer views of farm life seldom captured between covers. Two of them are memoirs, written [...]

Move Over Just a Hair Many people may think of scalping as something only done in frontier days. However, scalping from farm machinery is a real danger in the modern [...]

After completing my conversion to 100% no-till farming in 2004, I knew it was a good move. But, I wondered how much I was really saving on equipment, time and [...]

If you’re adding acres this spring or modifying crop rotations, it could put a kink in your equipment lineup for 2007. Now, when harvest is fresh in your mind, is [...]

machinery shows A Mix-and-Match Tillage System Offers Custom Soil Conservation There no longer is a one-size-fits-all tillage system, says Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie. “Fifteen years ago, farmers used [...]

Record-Breaking Harvest Benefits Kids What a sight to see! Combines dotted the field in Winkler, Manitoba, Canada, last August as 105 combines harvested 162 acres of winter wheat in 11 [...]

Tillage Tool Movement Used Tillage Tool Sales Click here to view table. How many ways can a farmer turn dirt? Evidently, a bunch. The IRON Solutions database has recorded sales [...]

A Disk Blade Does the Trick To pull fence posts easier, I cut two holes with a cutting torch in an old 20' or 22' metal disk blade. I made [...]

Can You Do It Yourself? There are many equipment repairs that farmers are qualified to make, and there are just as many repairs that farmers are tempted to tackle but [...]

Tools of the Trade Except for computers and sophisticated electronic repairs, there are very few jobs that Milt Stengel, his son Scott and their employees, Brad Nelson and Charles Veen, [...]

It’s not often that daydreaming aids in the invention of a machine, but David Ward, a former farmhand and construction supervisor, attributes his Strawjet invention to past experiences operating farm [...]

Acres And Acres of Iron A record 312,206 people attended the 2006 National Farm Machinery Show (NFMS) in Louisville, Ky. That's over 10,000 more than last year. Perhaps the high [...]

High-clearance suspensions and mega-boom technology look intimidating, but self-propelled sprayers are primarily made of four common components-engine, drivetrain, hydraulics and spray system. When shopping for a used self-propelled sprayer, thoroughly [...]

A Recycled Crowd Pleaser A 30'-long trailer frame serves as the base of a portable facility to work cattle. At the hitch end of the trailer is a narrow, 10'-long [...]

The benefits of Real-Time Kinematics (RTK) auto-steering began to surface as soon as a few Corn Belt farmers adopted the technology. With the ability to provide sub-1' accuracy, repeatable year [...]

They don't call him 'Highgear' Hargett for nothing. If there's a method to farm more efficiently, Jimmy Hargett will figure out a way-and fast. Hargett is known throughout the Cotton [...]

More choices, additional product features and less cost. That may sound too good to be true, but it is precisely the scenario being enjoyed by today's auto-steer buyers. Industry insiders [...]

Steve Groff of Cedar Meadow Farm in Holtwood, Pa., has been rolling down cover crops for 10 years. Lamar Black of Tilmanstone Farm in Millen, Ga., has done likewise for [...]

Specific Goals Help Create a Shop That Gets The Tough Jobs Done Ideas to Borrow * Running power to sub-panels makes it easy to install additional circuits. * Plan traffic [...]

We've all done it: brushed a bare electrical wire against nearby metal to see if electricity is present. It's a risky diagnostic maneuver. Sparking a wire risks blowing a fuse, [...]

There are combine drivers and there are combine operators. Combine drivers focus on acres per hour. The operators acknowledge acres per hour but concentrate on percentages-percent yield loss, percent MOG [...]

When his wife or his parents aren't available to shuttle him between fields, Dave Sies shuttles himself on a motorcycle that piggybacks on his tractors or service truck. On his [...]

Almost is Close Enough The automatic swing lock drawbar allows Cottonwood, Minn., farmer Harold Fratzke to back the tractor drawbar alongside the implement hitch instead of hitting the mark. To [...]

Charlie Hickey's combine is running on empty, but hundreds of pounds of grain and foreign material still lurk inside the machine. The Mt. Pulaski, Ill., farmer frees scoop shovels full [...]

Building firm carried on using agricultural tractor to transport materials without a licence, despite clear warning from VOSA, says Scottish DTC. Despite a clear warning by VOSA, a building firm [...]

AutoFarm Makes RTK More Accessible Responding to the hands-free steering market, AutoFarm rolls out a Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) system that makes the high-accuracy technology more accessible. Not only is it [...]

Apply Ammonia Uniformly to Save Money For a number of years, we tried various ways to make our anhydrous ammonia application more uniform. We accomplished our goal and, in the [...]

Twin-Row Corn Results Click here to view graphs With heightening interest in twin-row corn and new equipment to do the job, we devoted several sets of Farm Journal Field Tests [...]

As farm operations become larger, more producers are investing in their own application equipment. Economies of scale are in their favor. With competition from this on-farm application, ag retailers are [...]

Harlan Downing has turned into a real traffic cop in his Colby, Kan., fields. That's because he holds his field operations to a new set of rules: all machines have [...]

South Dakota hay producer Gary Freeburg has a name for the traditional wheel rakes used by most producers during hay harvesting: ropers. He calls them ropers because they tend to [...]

When Charlie Hammer's farm size outgrew his 300-gal. self-propelled sprayer, he replaced it with his tracked, guidance-equipped Challenger 765 tractor. Hammer and his wife Nancy Kavazanjian operate Hammer-Kavazanjian Farms near [...]

How do you think the overall advances in application equipment over the past five years will affect ag retailers? I don't think there has ever been a time in our [...]

BARRY ALSTON reports from ADAS Pwllpeiran's winter open day. WITH 14 per cent of Wales covered by trees and some 320,000 acres or 40 per cent publicly owned, forestry is [...]