Technology

This year’s Boerepatente Kompetisie at Nampo Harvest Day was dominated by the Goosen family of Matlakeng, Botswana. Bertus and his daughters won 12 prizes.

Dr Erika van Zyl discusses alternative manners in which to deal with parasites in smallstock.

Daan Hugo, managing director of CertiSure, says that while avoiding risk in the South African agricultural sector is out of the question, various risk management tools are available to help in the assessment and prioritisation of risks. Annelie Coleman reports.

The idea of driving implements by electricity generated by the tractor engine, rather than the power take-off, is decades old. Now, at last, a small number of implements are available to match the concept, says Joe Spencer.

Research by food scientist Dr Cindy Hunlun suggests that legislation about fruit juice labelling should be revised to reflect true nutritional value and health properties.

Case IH recently organised a training camp for its dealers from Africa and the Middle East, followed by a Customer Day that attracted 400 visitors. Joe Spencer reports.

This innovative product could improve animal health and benefit the environment.

Farmers can use the Solvita test’s rapid testing technology to analyse biological soil health on their farms to determine whether their land can adequately support sustainable and profitable production. Wilma den Hartigh finds out how the technology works and why biological soil health should be a greater priority.

Massey Ferguson staged the most impressive display of its products in Africa for years at the recent ‘Vision of the Future’ mechanisation event at the AGCO Future Farm in Lusaka. This was the first appearance of the MF 5700 tractor series on the continent.

Pecan production mechanisation has seen steady improvement in efficiency. Joe Spencer examines some of the latest equipment on offer locally.

Greenhouse farming can become expensive if improvements are not made continually to achieve greater production efficiency. Hydroponic consultant, Herbert Stolker, highlights three strategies to accomplish this.

Joe Spencer takes a closer look at this international company’s latest tillage and seeding solutions.

Greenhouse crop farmers are increasingly making use of retractable roof technology to create optimal growing conditions, and to reduce exposure to extreme climates.

A wine grape grower has found that smaller tractors can perform most of the tasks normally carried out by much larger machines.

The JMC Landwind SUV spearheads the Chinese invasion of this SA car market sector. Chris Nel gives his impressions after driving it for a week.

The final production model of what is claimed to be the world’s first driverless tractor was launched at Agritechnica.

[Examining the global opinions] A research group led by Dr Heidi Hawkins, research director at Conservation South Africa, conducted a study into the differing views on holistic planned grazing across the globe.

The use of quality packaging safeguards the time and effort a grower has put into producing top quality fruit. Dawid Groenewald of Citrus Research International (CRI) spoke about the latest packaging developments and trends at a recent CRI workshop in Stellenbosch.

Better ride quality, performance and build are just some of the features that make this the most significant new Hilux in decades, says Gavin Foster.

As part of our 105th anniversary issue, Joe Spencer takes us back to when men were men, and tractors were temperamental beasts.