Cork tractor meeting rescheduled

The FTMTA Skillnet meeting for Mallow, Co Cork has been rescheduled to Friday 12 September. The rest of the meetings will go ahead as planned - the first started in Tullamore on Thursday 4 September.

The aim of the meetings is to provide FTMTA members with an update on the latest tractor legislation proposals so that all members will have an opportunity to have an input into the final legislation proposed by the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

Next week, meetings will be held in Kells on Monday 15 September and in Kilkenny on Wednesday 17 September. All FTMTA members are invited to attend.

John Deere expands tractor production

Deere & Company plans to expand manufacturing capacity of its large, high horsepower tractors, adding to a project announced earlier this year for facilities in Waterloo, Iowa in the US. Deere said the investment will help the company meet its expectations for market demand worldwide in coming years.

Deere plans to invest approximately $97m in areas that are core to the business and offer a competitive advantage, such as the Waterloo foundry, engine and drive train operations.

An addition of an estimated 103,000 square feet will be added to the drive train operation in Waterloo. Part of the total investment will include improvements at a John Deere plant in Coffeyville, Kansas, where Deere builds transmissions and other drive train components. In combination, the projects will increase John Deere's manufacturing capacity to build high horsepower tractors in Waterloo by about 40% and increase capacity for other tractor components and service parts.

The company said both projects are expected to be complete by early 2010. Tractors built in Waterloo are exported to more than 130 countries and are highly popular with the most productive farmers and growers in North America.

CSO figures show tractors in demand

The latest figures on new tractors licensed for the first time in the country for July shows that 407 new tractors were licensed, a drop from 449 for the same month in 2007. The overall figures from January to July show an increased trend, with a total of 3,317 new tractors licensed compared with 3,301 for the same period in 2007.

Used tractors licensed for the first time showed a monthly increase in a number of years, marginally up from 346 to 349 units.

This left the used tractor license numbers standing at 2,250 to the end of July. This compares with 2,283 used tractors licensed for the same period last year.

AGCO links with Topcon andSauer-Danfoss

AGCO Corporation, the owners of the Massey Ferguson, Challenger, Fendt and Valtra tractor brands has announced that a new company called TSD Integrated Controls, which is a joint venture company between Topcon Positioning Systems and Sauer-Danfoss, will be the supplier of AGCO's next generation satellite-guided steering assist system - AUTO-GUIDE2.

The AUTO-GUIDE2 system is integrated into the overall architecture of AGCO machines. AGCO claims that the next-generation system will use advanced inertial sensor and multi-constellation satellite positioning technology to achieve what AGCO and TSD expect to be an industry leading auto steering system which will help increase productivity and reduce input costs.

AGCO claims that the system has tested to be outstanding in steering accuracy and has delivered reliable performance.