Category: Agricultural Equipment

August 20, 2012 Agricultural Equipment, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

‘He lost the plot’: farmer mows down wife’s lover with tractor

A French farmer killed his wife’s lover after chasing him across fields in his tractor and mowing him down.

Claude Boutevillain, 51, a farmer in the Meuse, eastern France, was reportedly driven mad by his wife Josette’s decision to leave him for the local butcher, 48-year-old Jean-Michel Allemeersch.

The crime of passion, allegedly committed on Friday evening, has struck a chord in a country with more than 500,000 farms.

Witnesses watched helplessly as Mr Boutevillain allegedly pursued his rival across fields, first ramming the butcher’s meat van.

“We shouted to Mr Boutevillain to stop,” Laurence Oudinot told regional daily L’Est Republicain. “My husband phoned the fire brigade while the neighbour phoned the gendarmes.

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March 22, 2011 Agricultural Equipment, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Thieves strike 2 Oahu farms

Oahu growers have been hit by thieves seeking pricey ornamental plants as well as pots, tools and other gear.

Over the weekend, thieves took more than $15,000 worth of farm equipment and a truck from a taro restoration proj­ect in the Heeia wetlands.

Mahealani Cypher, spokes­woman for the nonprofit organization Kako‘o ‘Oiwi, said yesterday that two chain saws, eight weed whackers, two water pumps, tools and a 20-by-20-foot tent were stolen sometime late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

Last week, Glenn’s Flowers and Plants on Moku­lama Street in Wai­ma­nalo lost 70 Raphis indoor palms valued at $14,000.

The nursery lost 37 plants that were growing in 3-gallon pots, nine palms in 5-gallon pots and 24 palms in 7-gallon pots. All of the plants were housed in a greenhouse.

In Kaneohe, workers arriving at the 400-acre site at 11 a.m. Sunday discovered the security gate off Kame­ha­meha Highway was broken, Cypher said. The thieves also used blowtorches to open locked containers. A donated green Chevy pickup truck is also missing,

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November 29, 2010 Agricultural Equipment, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Spraying Pa’ia with 2,4-D – Is it safe?

Early on Saturday, October 23 a blue helicopter with large spray wings attached sprayed the edges of the canefields in Pa‘ia. There were strong and variable winds and the spray blew directly into many nearby residences. Pa‘ia houses emptied as families stepped outside to gawk in awe as the flying sprayer made pass after pass along the canefields at the edge of town.

Moon Over Haleakala inquired of HC&S as to what was being sprayed so close to homes, children and old people – and why?

A&B spokesperson Meredith Ching was kind enough to find out what was going on and to send the Moon a detailed account of the spraying that day. Her full account and a sample of scientific controversy surrounding 2,4-D is on page 14. Our photo gallery of the spraying, and the links to internet sites describing the ongoing controversy surrounding health risks and the approvals for such wide use of 2,4-D are available at our website, mauimoonnews.com.

Below is Moon Over Haleakala staffer Madeline Ziecker’s personal account of events that Saturday morning.

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October 29, 2010 Agricultural Equipment, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Tractors Are Vintage, but Ready for Dirty Work

By BARRIE ALAN PETERSON
FROM Pebble Beach, Calif., to Greenwich, Conn., and at dozens of picturesque settings in between, shows for vintage vehicles offer enthusiasts the opportunity to rub elbows with historic machinery in country-club surroundings.

Not every gathering needs to be a concours d’élégance where white-gloved judges probe the undersides of pristine Duesenbergs in search of a historically incorrect hose clamp, however. A decidedly more populist show was the 21st Red Power Roundup, which attracted an estimated 25,000 people last June to the LaPorte County Fairgrounds in northwest Indiana to see some 2,000 tractors and trucks made by International Harvester.

One of more than 1,400 antique tractor events across North America in 2010 listed by Farm Collector magazine, it is considered by many in the hobby to be the World Series of farm tractor meets, a heartland counterpoint to blazer-and-ascot antique car events and casual suburban cruise nights.

To a casual spectator, the rows of gleaming red International tractors represent the steady progress of industry in modernizing crop production, but to the shrinking number of Americans rooted in farming, they represent a heroic era. From the early 20th century, tractors pulled plows and cultivating equipment, powered grain combines and hay balers, eventually hauling crops to the barn or to an elevator in town. They enabled American farmers to feed the world.

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October 3, 2010 Agricultural Equipment, General Ag News and Notes, Vegtables Post a Comment

Amid mounting safety concerns, technology helps track food from farm to table

Recalls push more companies to adopt digital tools that can prevent or contain the harm caused by contaminated food.

By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from San Jose — Inside a Silicon Valley company’s windowless vault, massive servers silently monitor millions of heads of lettuce, from the time they are plucked from the dirt to the moment the bagged salad is scanned at the grocery checkout counter.

That trail can be traced in seconds, thanks to tiny high-tech labels, software programs and hand-held hardware gear. Such tools make it easier for farmers to locate possible problems — a leaky fertilizer bin, an unexpected pathogen in the water, unwashed hands on a factory floor — and more quickly halt the spread of contaminated food.

This Dole Food Co. project and similar efforts being launched across the country represent a fundamental shift in the way that food is tracked from field to table. The change is slow but steady as a number of industry leaders and smaller players adopt these tools.

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March 25, 2010 Agricultural Equipment, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Business Briefs – Hawaii Business – Star Bulletin

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Maui Pine auction has good prices

KAHULUI » Maui Land & Pineapple Co. auctioned off a $23 million fresh fruit processing line for just $125,000.

Company President Ryan Churchill didn’t expect many bidders for the equipment because it is so specialized.

The auction held Tuesday at the Maui Beach Hotel drew more than 300 bargain hunters, with many more bidders online.

Maui Pine held the auction to sell off warehouses full of equipment after closing Maui’s last pineapple plantation late last year.

The company already has sold or leased some of its land and equipment to Haliimaile Pineapple Co. Haliimaile is trying to revive pineapple on a smaller scale.

Business Briefs – Hawaii Business – Starbulletin.com