Manufacturing industry looks to new products in order to survive

Jun 17, 2016

The past few years haven’t been easy for local farm machinery manufacturers as they deal with a struggling economy. But through development of new products, companies have fared well.

“Some of the best ag equipment that’s manufactured comes out of Canada and much of the innovation comes from Saskatchewan,” said Leah Olson, president of the Agricultural Manufacturers of Canada.

Olson said 2013 was a strong year for manufacturers, with the low dollar and crop commodity prices hitting them in 2014.

“The bigger manufacturers have been telling me that they’re seeing 2016 as a bit softer. And so to counter that they’ve been investing into (research and development) and looking at what’s the next product,” Olson said.

Degelman Industries, from Regina, is attending Canada’s Farm Progress Show this week. The past two years have been good for the company due to new product launches.

“We’ve introduced some new products. Our pro-till tillage unit happens to be one of the products that Western Canada has been really accepting of and orders have been very strong for that,” said Sheldon Mohr, marketing manager for Degelman.

The company also launched the Straw Master Pro, a 120-foot-wide heavy harrow set at the Farm Progress Show this week.

“Degelman has (produced) the right product at the right time for the industry. We have grown since that period or over that period of time,” Mohr said.

Degelman is expanding to the United States, opening a manufacturing plant at Hillsborough, N.D., this summer.

Eastern Europe is a huge market for Canadian farm equipment and even with the current political unrest there, the market in Europe is still good for manufacturers.

Source : Leaderpost

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.