28 January 2016

New farming machinery sales in 2015

​The data about new farming machinery sales in 2015 were published. The most important information was that 10,605 new tractors were sold... as you can see in our graph, this confirms that the market of new tractors is around 10,000 units. You have all statistics which were published by Official Department of Agriculture from this link


We would like to highlight the best seller new tractor was the John Deere 6125M, followed by New Holland T4.95 F, Kubota M8540 and John Deere 6150M. On the other hand, we would like to mention some absences like Kubota M7001 and the Deutz-Fahr Agrotron 9 Series (out of which only one tractor was sold in 2015)... we spoke about them last year.

A few interesting rankings about new tractors sales are detailed below:

Ranking sales rates per brand
  1. John Deere: 2,661
  2. New Holland: 1,933
  3. Kubota: 873
  4. CaseIH: 786
Ranking sales rates per group
  1. CNH: 2,719
  2. John Deere: 2,661
  3. AGCO: 1,407
  4. SDF: 1,186
  5. Kubota: 702
  6. ARGO: 474
  7. Claas: 290
  8. Resto: 995
Ranking Avg. power (HP)
  1. Fendt: 170.2
  2. Claas: 148.7
  3. Deutz-Fahr: 141.7
  4. CaseIH: 141.1
  5. Valtra: 139.1
  6. Massey Ferguson: 131
  7. John Deere: 125.5
  8. New Holland: 113.4
  9. McCormick: 90
  10. Same: 90
  11. Lamborghini: 88.8
  12. Landini: 85.8
  13. Kubota: 84.8
Other highlight data of new farming machinery sales are the following ones:
  • Sold trailers: 5,147 units in 2015 (5,242 units in 2014)
  • About trailed or mounted machinery:
    • Soil tillage machinery: 2,673 units in 2015 (2,378 units in 2014)
    • Seed drills machinery: 783 units in 2015 (692 units in 2014)
    • Crop protection machinery: 5,752 units in 2015 (4,754 units in 2014)
    • Spreaders machinery: 2,115 units in 2015 (2,189 units in 2014)
    • Harvesters machinery: 1,989 units in 2015 (1,939 units in 2014)
Ranking new combines sales rates:
  1. Claas: 103
  2. New Holland: 97
  3. John Deere: 70
  4. Fendt: 19
  5. Deutz-Fahr: 18
  6. CaseIH: 4
Ranking new automotive grape harvesters sales rates:
  1. New Holland: 40
  2. Gregoire: 17
  3. Pellenc: 12

21 January 2016

​Rain... the keystone

The most important factor in our agriculture is the rain. Maybe other our followers who come from Germany, France, the USA, United Kingdom,... don't think so, but in Spain and specially in our area (central-south Iberian Peninsula) the most important factor is the rain since we live in an arid ground. Many times, the tractor, tools, fertilizer, sowing method,... that we use aren’t decisive... the results depend on the amount of rain fallen during the whole year and more particularly in spring. We remember our grandfathers and more recently our father looking the sky every day to know if it will rain... Unfortunately nowadays, we are in the same situation, or even worse, because of the climate change.

According to the old people of our village memories, several years ago the rainfall was larger than nowadays... the climate change is a fact and farmers are seriously suffering it. As you can see in our chart, we show you the amount of rain in our village (La Alberca de Záncara - Cuenca) in 2015. The total in 2015 was 320mm (liters/s.q.m.) when this total was over double 30 years ago.


Rain(mm)
Date

Rain(mm)
Date
6
17/01/2015

2
29/05/2015
8
19/01/2015

5
10/06/2015
2
20/01/2015

16
11/06/2015
31
31/01/2015

5
22/08/2015
17
02/02/2015

15
07/09/2015
5
03/02/2015

5
17/09/2015
5
12/02/2015

2
27/09/2015
12
15/02/2015

4
06/10/2015
2
17/02/2015

2
11/10/2015
3
21/02/2015

3
12/10/2015
9
18/03/2015

4
14/10/2015
9
20/03/2015

4
17/10/2015
15
23/03/2015

15
18/10/2015
17
24/03/2015

10
20/10/2015
8
09/04/2015

4
26/10/2015
4
11/04/2015

1
27/10/2015
7
15/04/2015

25
02/11/2015
3
16/04/2015

8
03/11/2015
15
26/04/2015

2
29/12/2015
5
19/05/2015

5
31/12/2915


It isn't necessary a lot of rain to have a great crop of cereal but the rain is necessary at very specific times of the year. For example, our crops need rain in April and May... it is fundamental. Also the rain is important after sowing (in December) and when we are fertilizing (February or March). In our aggregate graph you can see April and May were too much dry so our crop was catastrophic :(

We also performed the "cabañuelas" method. This forecast system is based on evaluating the meteorology of the first 24 days (morning hours) of August of the previous year... you have more information about that from here. As you can see in our pictures, the system is quite accurate and it can be used to do some planning in your farm... Regrettably, you have to remember cabañuelas isn't 100% accurate.

Versión en español.


Rain in 2015
Rain in 2015
Rain in 2015

11 January 2016

​A legendary tractor...The Ebro 160

Firstly, we would like to wish our followers and all the farmers a happy new year. We hope you achieve good crops and great prices to continue working in your farms properly.

Normally in almost all of our posts, we speak about machinery of last generation with high technology. On this occasion​ ​we are going to speak about the legendary Ebro 160 Spanish tractor.

We were harvesting olives at Christmas time when one of our neighbours arrived with his old Ebro 160 to harrow a field in order to prepare it for sowing barley... we liked seeing it working!!. This farmer has a small cereal farm (about 25ha) and all its works are carried out with his Ebro 160.

Some features of this tractor are mentioned bellow:
  • Manufactured year was 1967.
  • Its Ebro engine (Perkins manufactured in Madrid) has 3,610 cm3, compression ratio of 16.5 to 1 and its firing order is 1-2-4-3. It uses direct injection so that the piston head (aluminum alloy) is widely studied forms.
  • The crankshaft has five support! and it is done in forging nitriding treatment.
  • The power is 60HP at 2,100 rpm and its max. torque is of 220Nm at 1,600 rpm.
  • Consuption is low...212g/CVh at 2,100 rpm.
  • The air filter uses oil.
  • The injection pump is in line and it has a mechanical control.
  • Gear box has 3+1 gears and it has 2 group so it offers 6+2 gears. Speed is from 1.3 to 27km/h (with 15*30 bias tyres).
  • Ebro offered tow options about clutch: a simple dry clutch of 280mm (Ebro 160 and Ebro 160 D models) or two dry clutchs (305 and 255 mm) to ​transmission​ ​and PTO (Ebro 160 E model).
  • It has assisted or mechanical steering... last models have hydrostatic with orbitrol steering system (maybe it could be added in garage after selling).
  • Break system has two options too... 2 dry discs per wheel or 4 wet discs per wheel
  • You can see the workshop manual from here​.
Another farmer in our village is repairing his old Ebro 160D... as you can see in our pictures. That tractor is really great and we think it will be ideal to go to pilgrimage or even to work.

Versión en español.

Ebro 160
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Ebro 160 D
Ebro 160 D
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Ebro 160 D
Ebro 160 D
Ebro 160 D
Ebro 160 D
Ebro 160 D
Ebro 160 D
Ebro 160 D
Ebro 160 D
Ebro 160 D