What farmers are looking for in machinery

Trends are emerging in what farmers are looking for when considering making big money purchases on machinery.

When farmers are looking to make big purchases on machinery, there are plenty of things to consider. From comfort to ease of use, compatibility to automation, manufacturers need to be on the front line of the emerging trends.

Ben Mitchell of New Holland said the main things he sees customers looking for is backup, tech innovation, and the total cost of ownership.

“Backup is always the big thing – the dealer network and your backup is a key thing naturally,” he said.

“I think also to have machines that have the connectivity, that have telematics reporting back to the grower or telematics reporting back to the dealer so the dealer can monitor machinery and also assist in that setting.

“I think that sort of rolls into the total cost of ownership. You might get a higher horsepower tractor, but you might save on fuel costs or increase your productivity with speed.

“And I think also support from the major brands as well. You’ve got the dealer but you also need to make sure that your manufacturer is top notch and supporting the dealer as well at the same time.”

For Matt Daniels of Case IH, he has noticed a growing focus on horsepower.

The new Case IH Steiger 715 Quadtrac towing a Flexi-Coil Air Cart equipped with section control and variable rate application control. Picture: Supplied

Having recently launched the new Case IH Steiger 715 Quadtrac, Mr Daniels said the higher horsepower machines can enhance efficiency for growers.

“We compared the 715 with our current generation 600 Quadtrac while towing a 60-foot tillage rig, and found the 600 Quadtrac ran at 4km/h, at 120L/h with 8 per cent wheel slip, while the 715 travelled at 9km/h at 100L/h with 4 per cent wheel slip,” he said.

“We’re actually putting a bigger tractor in the paddock with higher horsepower, but we’re also providing more productivity and higher ground speeds, but reducing their actual fuel usage by 10 per cent, which is huge savings for these growers.

“The question is, as we start inching closer to that 1000 horsepower, are those tillage companies actually ready for us? Quite frankly now, they’re not.”

Both Mr Mitchell and Mr Daniels agree that integration between the tractor and its implement has to be front of mind for both farmers and manufacturers, with Mr Mitchell expecting to see further growth in cross-platform integration.

“It’s about implements matching up with tractors. That’s the holy grail of what farmers really want. It’s the integration of machinery, where the gear on the back and the tractor are fully integrated,” Mr Mitchell said.

“I think you want a few things that are proprietary and help to promote your own brands, but ultimately … a farmer wants to be able to plug in their machine and get it to work.”

New Holland representative Ben Mitchell. Picture: Supplied

And while farmers are always on the lookout for the next best innovation in tech, Ben said there is already so much great technology in tractors already, that’s possibly not being used to its potential.

“Some of the tech we are talking about, is actually already in tractors that customers may not know about,” he said.

“When you get (tractors) into a row, you press one button, and it can literally lift linkages, turn off PTO (power take-off), do all these features, and some people don’t know it is there.

Mr Daniels agreed.

“Farmers are so pressed on time to get across it … but we could actually improve a lot of other things if we just slowed down a little bit and looked at the technology we have today,” he said.

On site at FutureAg, Ben and New Holland will be displaying their recently launched T7.300 PLMi, coupled to a New Holland 1290 High Density Large Square Baler.

Their newly released feature – an integrated large square baler control – is able to anticipate forces exerted on the tractor by the baler, resulting in a 15 per cent reduction in can movement and a 12 per cent reduction in fuel consumption.

“The baler can actually tell the tractor how to operate,” Matt said.

For Case IH, they will have their Steiger 525 Rowtrac and AFS Connect Puma 260 on display.