December 2009 Archives

We're very lucky on the Machinery desk to get some pretty cool freebies, although some slightly question whether we completely adhere to our company's 'Code of ethics' (we're not supposed to accept them - but it would be rude to send them back - surely?).

This Christmas, we've had the usual crop of Christmas cards and calendars (I've half-inched the MF one - of course!). But this came in the post this very morning:

How cool is that?!? Unfortunately, there's no hitch to hook it up to a Britains' (or any other model tractor make) tractor - but it's still pretty neat.

Ahead of LAMMA - where Lemken will be showing the latest Sirius model of sprayer - we'll should be able to name every part (and who said we had time to kill over Christmas!).

The only other freebie this year was a lovely suit carrier from Krone. Thanks guys!

As we're battling with getting the tractor test together ahead of our colossal December 18 edition of Farmers Weekly (not only is there a 20page test section, but we've got lots of other pages too!) our colleagues from over the channel are in the process of conducting another group test...

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you - it's a test of remote control tractors and implements for La France Agricole's Christmas issue.

Of course, we'll let you know who's won when testing is complete, but don't be surprised if you see us replicating this in the future, it simply looks too much fun (ahem... I meant too valuable for our readers) a test to miss out on!

I'm in the process of trying (and it is trying at the moment) to write my thesis for an MSc in rural development. It's on machinery (surprise, surprise!) and the role it plays in rural development policy.

Considering the UK give £5.5bn in aid to developing countries, and a proportion is focused directly on agriculture and rural development, I reckoned it would be a good idea to find an expert who knew what they were on about. 

Because agriculture features fairly heavily in development, with a large proportion of countries GDP's coming from the land, I thought that mechanisation should feature in some way or another .

I contacted DFID (Department for International Development) - which doles out most of the UK's aid - to ask if someone could help.

This was the response I got:

'I forwarded your e-mail to my colleagues who deal with farming and research, but they say they wouldn't deal with this sort of thing - we  don't have any agriculture machinery specialists in DFID  and we don't fund any research on agriculture machinery or on farm mechanisation policy.'

Ok, I thought. Until I got the magazine Developments through the post. I'm a little intrigued as to how they managed to harvest fields without even hand tools (still machinery). 

I find it incredulous that machinery doesn't seem to feature in development policy. And no, I'm not talking about big, shiny, red tractors. I'm talking about novel irrigation methods, easy-to-fix second-hand tractors and cultivation kit that works with the environment it's meant to.

It's comforting to learn from a soldier currently on tour, however, that ammonium nitrate is being dolled out pretty freely to farmers in Afghanistan. Great for both the lucrative poppy crop and roadside bombs, too.   
 

Now, if your workshop is like any I have wandered into before, it'll be strewn in blue paper, with grease guns lurking exasperatingly where you can't find them with the 13mm spanner nestling mischievously alongside.

They're comfortingly untidy things (like my desk) and if they're too clean, you often tell yourself, it means there's nothing getting done.

But, wait! They don't have to be like this according to our German cousins... just have a look at this:

Why not send in a picture of your workshop to emily.padfield@rbi.co.uk

It seems an age ago that we saw the first glimpses of a VW pick-up - but the launch of the Amarok (Inuit for wolf) is just around the corner, with the first vehicles due on sale in the UK in September 2010.

As the first European manufacture to tackle the pick-up market for a while, first models will be available in 4-door, double-cab form and there'll be a choice of two fuel-sipping 2-litre diesel engines, one putting out 163hp and the other a more sedate 122hp. Given that most pick-ups boast 2.5-litre and more commonly 3-litre engines, it'll be interesting to see how it performs in the field.

With a payload of 1.15t and a towing capacity of 2.8t, the Amarok will adopt Golf styling at the front and there's a choice of rear-wheel, switcheable 4wd or permanent 4Motion 4wd.

The remarkeable claim of the new, South American-built pick-up is the CO2 emissions, which stand at less than 200g/km. And that's not all -  the 80-litre tank should, says VW, do more than 600 miles (1000km in new money).

It'll be interesting to see how it copes as the official vehicle for the Dakar Rally next spring. Personally, I think it looks gorgeous. Welcome back to the pick-up market, Volkswagen.