HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Rural Voice, 1993-03, Page 14Ring -drive, dual -auger silo unloader
• Adapts to single -cable, 3 -cable tripod or 3 -cable
hexapod suspensions.
• Ring drive with power transmitted to a gearbox and
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• A radial pin overload clutch protects the drive system.
• Both augers include raping teeth that overlap and
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• 1/4 -inch -thick auger fighting.
• Giant 28 -inch blower with stainless steel blower band
• 4 cupped. cast-iron, swinging paddles with 1' stainless
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• Proven -reliable Patz electrical pint.
• Electrical control panel with ammeter and remote
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• Heavy-duty dotble-sealed auger gearbox with synthetic
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• COR-TEN®steel frame combines high strength with
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• Stainless steel auger guard
• Dual offset wall cleaners.
• All the features you need are standard equgment.
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Contact:
gb Progressive
Farming
R. R. 2, Wellesley 656-2709
Rannoch 229-6700
PURPLE GROVE
Portable Seed
Cleaning
And Treating
t-'0
Grains, Beans and Forages
Bag or Bulk
Convenient and Economical
Serving Mid -Western Ontario
R. R. #2
Kincardine, Ontario
N2Z 2X4
396-4559
10 THE RURAL VOICE
Robert Mercer
Getting to hear the other side of the
farm story
The Ontario corn harvest was still a
strong topic of conversation when I
visited the Farm Show in Toronto
mid-January.
There were
those with 600
acres yet to
combine, to
some who had
just finished
their beans
where the
quality had
stood up well, to
those who had
finished and
even had good
yield and
quality.
On a trip later
that week in the Stratford area I saw
corn stubble being plowed — yes, on
January 26. I visited a brand new
dairy operation where the milking
parlour was a double -10 herringbone
that was so automated that it needed
one man to operate. Milk recording
was automatic and computerized and
the layout designed for speed, ease
and cleanliness.
Back at the Farm Show the dealers
and distributors to the dairy industry
had, in general, had a good year. This
supply management industry was not
crying in the soup over GATT, butter-
fat surplus, or quota prices; they were
getting on with the job of upgrading
and becoming more efficient with
long-term plans to stay in the industry.
Farm equipment dealers were
reported as having had one of the best
Decembers on record, a far cry from
the languishing months of mid-
summer. The national statistics for
Canada showed tractor sales in the
2WD 100hp plus category up a
massive 48 per cent from unit sales of
a year ago. It's the same with
combine sales which were up 75 per
cent and round balers up 43 per cent.
Not bad for a shrinking industry
segment. Some of the credit for the
sales improvement is given to the
recently announced 10 per cent
investment tax credit.
However, one small -line manu-
facturer in Ontario told me that sales
had picked up enough that since De-
cember he had had to bring forward
his whole production schedule by a
month and a half due to an increase in
orders. There is some optimism in the
farm market, although it might be
difficult to find where com is in the
field and the only grain combined is
No. 5 or sample.
Time and again when talking with
producers the discussion would head
off to the price outlook and conditions
in the U.S. Was the U.S. corn crop
really as large as forecast? Just how
much U.S. corn is still left in the
field? Are the Russians ever going to
pay for the wheat and corn? How's
the supply of early varieties of
soybean seed? What's the condition
of the winter wheat crop in Ontario?
There are as many different opin-
ions as there are questions and the
Farm Show, just like the Plowing
Match, is a great place to see what's
new and to hear what's on people's
minds. This year was no exception.
The change was the more optimistic
approach to the problems that face
farmers. A rather surprising change I
thought, but very welcome.
Another new farm tool that was not
at the Farm Show relates to a press
release from Basle in Switzerland. It
was from here that Ciba-Geigy Ag
said it had successfully introduced a
gene into corn that would impart
resistance to the European corn borer.
This is the way of the future. Disease
resistant crops that do not require
pesticides or fungicides to control
losses.
The company says losses from the
European corn borer can run from
three to seven per cent with individual
fields suffering losses as high as 20
per cent.
Full scale tests will be run in the
U.S. and France and the company
hopes that the comprehensive field
trials will allow for the registration of
resistant varieties within five years.0
Robert Mercer is editor of the
Broadwater Market Leuer, a weekly
commodity and policy advisory letter
from Goodwood, Ontario LOC 1AO.