We visited several machinery companies and manufacturers today in Toowoomba.
Excel builds no-till equipment and sells directly to farmers.They also are part of a larger company that builds a wide range of products. There market is mostly in eastern Australia. They seem very committed to building what the farmers want and modifying from farmer feedback. It would be fun to try some of their toolbars and openers in Alberta. One unique feature of the company is their parts system. They place a container with parts in strategic area and farmers come and get what they need. Its on an honor system and the parts bin is not locked. One of their parallel link units and a tool bar is shown below. They do design for the CTF market with two and three meter units.
Oztec is a company that builds grain carts or chasers as they are called here. They come with 3 M axles. Their biggest so far is 50t. They have steerable axles and a 30t one costs about $123k.
C&C Machining are experts in axle extensions, some of which I showed yesterday. They have built some units for farmers in the US and of course lots here in Australia. They are not afraid to warranty their work. Prices range from 4%k to over $25k. Part of an extension is shown below.
Gyral built the world's first airseeder in the mid fifties. They continue building airseeders, openers and other equipment. One unique feature of their airseeders is the use of heated air for the air system. It helps prevent those irritating plugging problems on humid days. See the rad below, sitting just above the fan.
We also had an excellent visit with John Deere and learned some interesting things about their commitment to CTF and new things coming online. JD does offer wheel extension kits for the 7030 and 8R tractors.
Tomorrow I will share some of Tim Neale's approach to developing CTF systems. We fly to Rockhampton and will visit farms that area and west to Emerald.
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