The Jura department in eastern France has been described as the land of cheese, chocolate and wine, but for Stéphane Gaudillier, it’s also the land of soybeans, wheat, corn, barley, oats and several other crops he cuts in the area.
Gaudillier farms 247 acres (100 hectares) himself and owns a custom cutting company that cuts an additional 4940 acres (2000 hectares) in the region. “I’m more of a custom cutter than a farmer,” he says, adding he is more focused on his cutting and windrowing contracts.
Summers aren’t just hot, they shimmer in the fields around Madera in California's Central Valley. From June through September machine operators can look forward to average daily highs of 31oC (88oF), with afternoons in July and August the most grueling. Then a machine’s air conditioning is really put to the test when the mercury climbs to a sweltering 36oC (97oF) on average, and frequently well over that.
A few years ago, Ben VanDyke, along with a handful of other farmers from the Willamette Valley in Oregon, made the trek to Winnipeg, Manitoba, to visit the MacDon factory. In addition to the factory tour (and, of course, some MacDon hospitality), VanDyke and the other members of the group were there to provide some feedback and suggestions for a new header in development.
To say cattle farming runs in Joe Van Newkirk's blood would be a bit of an understatement. The family-owned ranch he currently owns and operates was founded in 1892 by Van Newkirk's grandfather, Lorenzo Van Newkirk, when he began mating Hereford bulls with Longhorn cows. Bringing those two together created a cross-breed that resulted in improved performance and growth.
Sixty years later, A.J.
More than 130 years ago, Randy Emtman’s great grandfather, John Emtman, arrived on the Palouse — a region of the northwestern United States which includes parts of Idaho, Oregon and Washington — and decided to set up shop. Or, rather, set up farm.
At the time, the 160 acres (65 hectares) of land he intended to homestead was covered with timber and also had a few springs and year-round stream.
It’s a given that you are going to have a little pioneer in your blood if you’re a fourth-generation farmer still proudly working the land that your family homesteaded back in 1905. That’s why it should be no surprise that Colin Schulhauser quickly said yes when he was asked to be among the first to run the new FD250 FlexDraper®, MacDon’s first ever 50-foot header.
