Deere and Co has reported a 52% jump in fourth-quarter earnings as demand for the US company’s farm machinery surged. Net income for the quarter ending 31 October was $422m, up from $277m in the same period last year. Deere has benefited from the jump in prices of wheat and maize. This, in turn, has been driven by the boom in ethanol production, increasing demand from Asian nations and poor harvests in some countries.

Latest high-spec, Sulky X fertiliser spreaders from Reco give ultra-uniform spreading up to 44m width with less than 5% coefficient of variation. One reason is a new twin-channel spreader vane that gives multiple-overlapping spread patterns. The X36 series has four models up to 3000 litres capacity spreading up to 36m wide while the X44 series has three models with 2400-4000 litres capacity spreading up to 44m.