Future of Grain
HIGHLIGHTING THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY IN GRAIN PRODUCTION AND UTILIZATION
New safety standards for augers
New Canadian safety standards for portable augers have been developed and manufactures are getting set to work them into their equipment designs.
The Agricultural Machinery Technical Committee of the Canadian Standards Association has worked for several years to develop the new standard. Most of the upgrades in the auger standards relate to the design of the intake guard and the auger driveline.
“Those are the areas where most injuries take place,” says Jim Wassermann in a release. Wassermann is an engineer with the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute in Saskatchewan and a member of the team that came up with the new standard. “The standards team has now come up with practical options to prevent a hand or foot from contacting the rotating flighting without restricting product flow,” he says.
“For example,” Wassermann adds, “a retractable intake guard is now an option in the new standard. It can stay in-place for most operations but in unique situations, it can be retracted and alternative safety precautions put in place.” The new standard also references all recent standards that relate to guarding auger drivelines and PTOs.
According to Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting, augers are second only to tractors in their involvement in machinery-related injuries on the farm. •
Optimum AcreMax XTreme gets Canadian approval
Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, has received approval of Optimum AcreMax XTreme insect protection from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. According to the company, these products will provide above- and below-ground insect control and refuge needs for Ontario corn producers in a single bag. The products will be available in Canada in the 2013 planting season.
Optimum AcreMax XTreme products integrate 95 percent of a Pioneer brand corn hybrid containing Herculex XTRA (HXX) insect protection pyramided with YieldGard® Corn Borer (YGCB) insect protection and the AgriSure RW (ASRW) trait and 5 percent of a similar non-Bt hybrid with herbicide tolerance to serve as the integrated refuge. All Optimum AcreMax XTreme products offer built-in glyphosate and glufosinate herbicide resistance, says the company.
Product research trials are planned for the 2012 planting season across a wide geographic region so farmers can assess product performance in advance of 2013.•
