Release Date: August 20, 2018
Setting a New Standard in Corn Harvesting Performance
Corn headers may be a new product for MacDon, but understanding what's essential for harvesting performance isn't. MacDon is bringing nearly 70 years as The Harvesting Specialists into the cornfield, and delivering corn harvesting performance and innovation in true MacDon fashion.
On February 1st, 2018, Linamar Corporation–the international manufacturing conglomerate based in Guelph, Ontario, Canada–completed its purchase of MacDon Industries Ltd. The transfer of ownership marks another significant milestone in MacDon’s continued growth and expansion, an upward trajectory that began in 1949 when Tom and Bill Killbery started producing North America’s first self-propelled grain swather in a quonset building beside Winnipeg’s airport.
Black gold, Texas tea – as with the Beverly Hillbillies, having oil discovered on their land is a ticket to the good life for many farmers, but according to Alberta farmer Albert Jensen, oil can also bring complications along with the cash.
“We have oil and gas on our land here. In the United States the land owner automatically has the oil rights, but here in Canada that’s not the case,” said Jensen from his grain farm south of Drumheller, Alberta.
Officially designated by the British Government as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the well touristed Cotswolds are renowned for being home to scenic pastoral landscapes, storybook villages and the quintessential English Charm that rural Britain is famous for. The region has always been linked to sheep production and it was prosperity from the wool trade that gave rise to large, privately owned estates where tenant farmers and laborers worked on behalf of the land’s owner.
Custom cutter Bobby Craig is constantly looking over his shoulder to check a windrow, a feeling many hay producers would understand.
“When our two swathers are running we not only have two silage choppers following us, but also maybe 10 to 20 semis, plus four packing tractors and the support teams,” said Craig from his home base near Nunn, Colorado. “If just one of our machines goes down, we’re shutting down 10 to 15 people from work. It’s a lot of pressure on us just to keep running.”
By world standards, the size of New Zealand’s arable industry is downright tiny. According to the Institute of Agriculture and Environment at New Zealand’s Massey University, a mere 145,000 hectares (358,000 acres) of wheat, barley and oats was grown in 2012, roughly one tenth the area allocated to wheat production in North Dakota each year. So for New Zealand to hold not one, but two, Guinness World Records in grain farming is beyond remarkable.