Italian Farm Equipment Field Day
|
INTO GEAR
THIS fall, I attended EIMA in campo, an Italian farm equipment industry field day sponsored by UNACOMA, the Italian Farm Equipment manufacturers trade association. This was a working demonstration of farm equipment and was held on a large farm near the Rome airport. The trip to the field day was part of a marketing program called Machines Italia sponsored by the Italian Trade commission. As many know, I have attended the EIMA Show in Bologna, Italy for a number of years, but the Bologna show is strictly a static show. To see Italian farm machinery actually working in the field was a unique experience. There was an emphasis on tractors, with all the major Italian manufacturers represented along with John Deere, New Holland, Case IH, and Challenger. Other European manufacturers such as Steyer, Valtra, Duetz Farr, McCormick, and Fendt also demonstrated. An Array Of Tools Along with a variety of traditional tillage tools such as plows and discs there were a number of powered tillage tools such as rotary tillers and power spaders being demonstrated. Italian manufacturers are world leaders in powered tillage tools and dominate the power spader market. My opinion is that power spaders are an excellent tillage tool and in one pass can do what might take up to four or five passes with conventional tillage tools. They also excel at incorporating cover crops into the soil and do not create a hardpan which is a problem with rotary tillers. There were a number of machines demonstrated that were of interest to U.S. vegetable and specialty crop growers. High on the list was a machine that I have mentioned before when it was on display at the EIMA show. The machine, made by Celli for dealing with nematodes and soilborne diseases, is called Bioflash. It works by injecting steam into the soil along with two relatively benign chemicals that react with the steam, giving off even more heat than would be provided by the steam alone. As I have mentioned before, the manufacturer has been testing the machine but has not felt that it was ready for use. This system could be a viable alternative to methyl bromide as a soil fumigant. At the field day, two types of the Celli machines were being demonstrated - a pull type and a self-propelled unit. Unfortunately, the demonstration was being conducted by the manufacturer’s technical staff and the literature was in Italian. I should have more information on this unit in the next few months. In addition, Sfoggia was demonstrating the company’s vacuum seeder for vegetable crops and its vegetable transplanter. A safety demonstration showed how a ROPS (Roll Over Protective Structure) would protect the tractor driver during a tractor rollover. In the demonstration tractors with and without ROPS were towed with the wheels on one side going up an inclined ramp until the tractor rolled over. There also were static displays, and I was impressed with the ones from the companies who make tractor tires. Obviously Italian farmers are very interested in the performance of their tractor tires and each company was promoting the advantages of its own tires. Inman is a professional engineer and farm adviser emeritus with the Monterey County Agricultural Extension, Salinas, CA; jwinman@worldnet.att.net. Copyright Meister Publishing Company Dec 2003
Inman, John W |