30,000 punters piled through the gates of Canada’s premier outdoor machinery exhibition, Ag in Motion, last month to see the latest “big iron”, quirky innovations, and everything between.

Oliver Mark picks out some highlights.

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Rust Sales ATV Trench Wheels

A set of retrofit ATV steelies could help drain standing water from sodden pastures and arable fields.

The V-shaped trench-cutting wheels from Rust Sales are 76mm wide at the hub and narrow to 38mm at the edge, thus carving a neat drainage channel behind the quad.

At the same time, their slightly concave profile helps compress the outer wall of soil, which should mean the slot holds its shape all season.

This also avoids leaving a ridge on the surface, which both ensures the water can flow into it unhindered and, because the channel is narrow, saves having to endure bone-shaking field passes for the rest of the year.

Their 710mm diameter provides slightly more ground clearance than a conventional wheel that reduces the chance of the vehicle grounding out.

And with square lugs around the perimeter, they should find traction as they cut through the surface to firmer soil below.

To form deeper trenches, the company suggests making a second pass through the original tracks.

Most sub-800cc ATVs and UTVs can accommodate the 25kg wheels without any jiggery-pokery, and the company provides hub adaptors for any that can’t – buyers simply specify their vehicle model at the time of purchase.

Rust Sales also offers 4in Pneumatic Trench Wheels that offer marginally more flotation than the steel versions for softer soil types.

List price of a steel wheel set is C$2,755 (£1,550).

Snirt Stopper keeps workshops warm

If you’re struggling to keep the workshop free of chilblain-inducing drafts, then the US-made Snirt Stopper could solve the problem.

It’s simple enough, with a high-density, insulative foam sausage wrapped inside a durable, Kevlar-reinforced woven polyester.

This forms a seal along the gappy base of any door to keep out wind, snow, dirt, leaves and, the company reckons, even rats. Plus, it’s apparently near-impossible to rip – something it backs with a monster 25-year warranty.

Attachment to the door is via a set of self-tapping screws and it comes in a range of thicknesses to match the size of the void.

Cheapest is the version to fill a 38mm slot, at C$11.99/ft (£6.74/ft). At the other end of the scale is a sausage with enough girth to cover a 114mm void; it comes in at C$38.99/ft (£21.91/ft).

The company also sells Side Sealers for the edges and tops of doors (£4.49/ft), which are 76mm wide and include a thermal strip to help with insulation.

Pointer Attachments folding gate

Sick of opening and closing field gates when checking livestock? Dakota-based Pointer Attachments could save the legwork with its range of wire-strung, remote-controlled posts that fold down to allow vehicles to pass through.

Buyers have the option of the 24ft (7.3m) self-contained setup pictured here, which comes with a tubular steel base that can be moved around with a telehandler.

Or, alternatively, there are built-in versions available in widths of 12ft to 45ft (3.6m to 13.7m), which are fitted permanently to either existing or new mounting posts, thus doing away with the base.

Either way, once the driver has pressed a button on the fob, the internal posts swing inwards to lay the six strands of wire on the ground. These can be driven over without causing any damage.

The C$2,500 (£1,405) kit includes a solar array to charge its 12V battery.

Springfield Ag Products

Manitoban firm Springfield Ag Products offers a range of L-shaped carriers to hold hydraulic hoses and electrical wires clear of the tractor’s drawbar and pto.

Its rear-mounted, Lend-a-Hand arms come in various guises to suit different models. For big John Deeres, such as the 8- and 9-series tracked RX, they fit to existing mounting slots and feature a fancier top pivot.

At C$500 (£280), they cost a bit more than the rigid versions currently available for Case IH, New Holland, Fendt and Versatile machines.

These are simpler and, in most cases, they require buyers to drill holes in the mainframe.

The company is currently working on adding a telescopic element to the arm, allowing it to be shortened on smaller tractors to eliminate any risk of it clashing with the implement.

Springfield also makes pipe drains, which have a tubular base carrying a series of strategically positioned funnels to direct oil from the mid rollers and idlers of tractor tracks.

Price for the Quadtrac-specific version is C$399 (£225) and smaller Universal models are C$269 (£150).

The funnels on these can be slid side-to-side and up and down to match the position of the rollers on any tracked tractor.

FarmSimple Herd Hand Water Monitor

A sensor kit from FarmSimple provides water trough level and temperature readings to save farmers trudging out to check them.

Its Herd Hand monitor keeps tabs on both, as well as ambient air temperature, water pressure and, for solar powered dispensers, the voltage of the accompanying battery.

If these fall below a set threshold, say 0C in the case of the water, then the system will fire out a text message alert.

The kit has a diddy solar array and battery of its own, the latter coupled to the sensor that is plunged into the drinker.

The company, from Vibank, Saskatchewan, sells the Herd Hand for C$750 (£420).

Versatile tractors to get driverless tech

High-horsepower Versatile tractors might be famed for their simplicity, but the Winnipeg-based manufacturer – now owned by Turkey’s Basak Traktor – is working on plans to equip them with the latest technology.

That will come from the brainy people at Albertan start-up Mojow Autonomous Solutions, with whom it has signed a deal that will give access to sophisticated, driverless systems.

Mojow’s Eyebox kit is designed to be retrofitted to any production tractor and goes far beyond the usual A-B line guidance.

Instead, it has developed a combination of cameras, sensors and artificial intelligence that will, in time, allow the tractor to commute to the field, open the implement and do its work – all without a human in the cab.

However, the two companies will be concentrating on the simpler elements of the system in the short-term, such as completing a headland lap autonomously, then planning and completing a fieldwork route within that.

Handily, given most big Versatile’s run old-school Cat gearboxes, Eyebox can be integrated into tractors with powershift transmissions, which tends to be a trickier affair than with a CVT.

In Canada, the rules currently stipulate that an operator is present in the cab, though with farms across the country suffering acute labour shortages, many expect that stance to soften.

Ag Storm Rock Armor

Farmers running regular autumn and spring sorties to collect rogue rocks from fields could save themselves some arm ache with Ag Storm’s Rock Armor UTV kit.

New for this year is a steel liner that bolts inside the vehicle’s load bed, featuring a fixed-position tailgate set at an angle of roughly 45deg that allows operators to dump the cargo without leaving the cab.

Allied to that is a swinging grapple that mounts in the front corner, complete with a 1,400kg Bear Claw winch.

It requires a 12V power supply to operate, and the whole kit weighs about 180kg.

According to the US firm, John Deere Gators are the most stable UTVs for the job thanks to their apparently superior frame structure.

The steel bed liner costs C$1,999 (£1,125), and the winch and grapple add a further C$2,490 (£1,400).

The company also sells an impressive range of colour-matched Field Seal toolboxes designed to be mounted to tractors, combines and sprayers.

Releasing the pull-tight latch on the 5mm thick, near-bulletproof door reveals an engineer’s Aladdin’s Cave, with labelled socket, ratchet and spanner holders, trays, and clips for grease tubes and aerosol cans.

The tractor version costs C$1,700 (£955), plus C$550 (£310) for the mounting brackets; it attaches ahead of the near-side front track on crawlers such as John Deere’s 9RX.

Combine variants tend to go between the wheels and cost C$1,900 (£1,070), excluding the mounting kit.

Mahindra Roxor

UK farmers aren’t alone in craving more robust alternatives to UTVs.

While demand here soars for old Suzuki Jimnys and Japanese mini pickups, the Canadians, at least in a small way, are turning to Mahindras.

No surprise that the Roxor HD looks familiar – it’s based on an early CJ Jeep and still employs much of that 1960s technology, in what the Indian company boldly claims is “the world’s toughest side-by-side”.

For a little under C$41,000 (£23,000) brand-new – or C$30,000 (£16,860) for the open-topped model – buyers get a 2.7-litre, four-cylinder turbodiesel tractor engine that’ll pump out 55hp and 195Nm of torque.

This runs through a five-speed transmission with a two-range transfer case that is effectively a clone of the original Dana setup. Top speed is 52mph.

Hydraulically assisted power steering also features, but anti-lock brakes, air bags and indicator lights don’t, so this stripped-down North American version isn’t road legal.

The model pictured is fitted with a composite cab, polycarbonate windscreen and removable canvas doors, though there are fancier aftermarket versions available.

Standard features include lockable under-seat storage, heating and air-con, a window defrost function and halogen headlights.

It’s rated to tow 1,815kg, and cabbed versions can carry 538kg in the load bed.

Other spec details of note include disc brakes on the front and drums at the rear, 23cm of ground clearance with leaf-sprung suspension, and, thanks to its heavy steel frame, a total weight of 1,549kg.

Maybe an opportunity for a budding UK importer, a la the Suzuki Quadtruck and Daihatsu Hijet recently featured in the pages of Farmers Weekly…

K-Hart Industries Spyder

Though absurdly big for UK farms, the soil-engaging components on K Hart Industries’ new Spyder seed-and-fert disc drill might offer no-till growers food for thought.

It uses the Gent Undercut opener, which sandwiches two discs of differing diameters – 17in and 15in – slanted at a 22.5deg angle.

This size variance means one turns faster than the other to produce a shearing action that chops through trash more effectively and apparently all but eliminates hair-pinning.

The twin-disc assemblies also pivot, allowing the drill to sweep round bends with no impact on performance or power draw (20hp/m).

They’re mounted on a parallelogram linkage with four spring settings that provide a downforce of between 100 and 240kg/row.

Allied to that is a hydraulic system that maintains pressure across each section of the drill to help follow ground contours.

Any of the weight that isn’t required to penetrate the soil to the target depth is transferred to the individual packer wheels behind.

Fertiliser is placed between the crop rows by a series of slightly angled, spring-loaded discs.

Beyond the benefits of conserving moisture by cutting an angled slot that ensures decent seed-to-soil contact, the company reckons the Spyder is unrivalled in its ability to slice through heavy residue.

Because of this, it is currently putting the finishing touches to what it believes will be the perfect foil for its drill – a prototype stripper header. This is expected to go on sale next year.

Tire Grabber Sprayer Jack

Safer and quicker wheel changes are the main benefits of the Sprayer Jack, designed by Alberta farmer Darcy Goossen.

The remote-control unit is rated to lift up to 13.6t, allowing farmers and contractors to raise the machine’s entire front or rear axle – or both when two are used together.

Twin hydraulics rams are powered by an integrated pump with a 12V battery and, once in position, locking arms locate onto protruding lugs to hold the load securely in place.

Various extensions are available to increase the reach, including a big “jack riser” frame that fits to the base to raise it by 300mm.

And on top are sliding bumpers blocks available in 215mm or 320mm sizes. Maximum lift height with the latter is 1.8m.

Prices start at C$9,800 (£5,550), which includes the smaller set of blocks.

The company, Tire Grabber, also sells a range of telehandler-mounted wheel carriers with jaw openings of 1.37-2.41m, and load capacities of between 1.4t and 1.8t.

The Water Box

A rancher in Alberta has come up with a novel means of maintaining a drinking water supply in remote areas during spells of savage cold.

The pithily named Water Box is designed to be plunged through an ice cut-out close to the shore of a a frozen pond, lake or river.

Once secured with ice screws, it will then freeze in place – though it is buoyant enough to float, should the watercourse thaw before it has been extracted.

It’s portable, low maintenance and, most importantly, requires no utility connections. Instead, it exploits geothermal energy to prevent the liquid in the box from freezing, aided by an agitator chain that dangles inside.

Livestock will require some initial training to use it, which starts by tying the lid wide open and then gradually closing it over the course of a week.

This encourages the animals to lift the flap before pushing their heads in.

Handily, the cows’ crash course can take place anytime in the year, as the box comes with a mineral tub insert that slots into the water receptacle.

John Deere 9RX

The most powerful tractor in world agriculture made its show debut at Ag in Motion.

The 9RX 830 is one of three new models in John Deere’s flagship articulated range, and tops out at a punchy 913hp.

The two other newbies that trail it – the 770 and 710 – deliver a not-to-be-sniffed-at 847hp and 781hp respectively.

That extra oomph comes from a bigger 18-litre, six-cylinder engine, which offers significantly more capacity than the 13.6-litre used in the 9RX 640.

Handily, an exhaust gas recirculation system sees to emissions nasties, saving the need for regular AdBlue top-ups.

Other hardware changes include a heavier duty e21 powershift transmission, larger drive sprockets on the track assemblies, and a triple hydraulic pump good for 636 litres/min.

Easier-to-climb steps lead to a larger and quieter operator accommodation, with more floor space and less clutter.

And the tractors are “autonomy ready”, complete with all the wiring harnesses to run Deere’s fully driverless system – meaning that no one is in the seat – when it is finally released.

As it stands, there are sixty 8R and 8RX tractors working autonomously in the US as Deere irons out gremlins and fine-tunes the software.

Development is complicated, given they need to be able to communicate with the implements they’re carrying so they can respond to drill blockages, snapped shear-bolts and the like.

However, their arrival in Canada is said to be imminent, ahead of an assumed global rollout in the coming years.

Green Aero Tech

Arable growers keen to experiment with drone spraying can now buy a complete kit from Green Aero Tech of Manitoba.

This includes a DJI Agras T50 copter, a separate chemical mixing tank, and a refilling trailer with a landing pad on its roof, allowing operators to maximise output by keeping several flying sprayers running simultaneously.

There are reckoned to be some 700 now working in earnest in Canada, their appeal heightened thanks to their ability to cruise straight over the wet patches that pockmark prairie fields.

These are primarily being used to apply biostimulants and granules – at least until licensing loosens for pesticide products.

The latest T50 carries a 40-litre tank, big enough to manage two bouts of a 65ha “quarter section”. It must then land for a tank refill and a swap of the 1.5kW lithium-ion batteries.

The latter are currently the major limiting factor in output.

But, Green Aero Tech says it’s not simply a case of increasing their size or adding more, as this will significantly increase the T50’s 100kg empty weight.

Instead, broadacre growers are being encouraged to run a fleet of several drones, each assigned a different section of the field.

A posse of three will likely require two people to keep them running.

The model pictured has two solenoid-activated rotary nozzles, though this can be upgraded to four for higher application rates in orchards and nurseries.

Typically, the machine will cover a 9.1m (30ft) bout when set to run just over 3m off the ground, with a radar maintaining its work height and responding to any topographical variations.

Forward speed is 10m/sec – enough to cover 16ha/hour – and application rates tend to be roughly 8 litre/min, which is well below the pump’s 24 litre/min capacity.

There is also a hopper option for spreading granular products.

List price is C$37,000 (£21,000), excluding the 230-litre mixing tank – powered by a diesel generator – and the big holding vessel on Top Notch Trailers’ twin-axle flatbed.