Farmers and contractors understand that struggle and downtime cost money. The only answer to face these frustrations is to obtain the best equipment. Balfour Farmers’ Association started seven years ago to present a focused hay day and invite the most popular tool suppliers to come and demonstrate their machines. The hay day gives farmers the opportunity to see for themselves, experience, ask questions and compare so that they can make exactly the right decisions about what equipment to purchase.
Doubling the attendance of a farmers’ day does not sit in any organizer’s pants, but that is what PJ Kriek and his sons managed on their farm, Palmietfontein between Devon and Balfour. This year, more than 900 people attended the Balfour Farmers’ Association’s hay day.
Balfour
The members of the Balfour Farmers’ Association’s Hay Day Management who masterfully arranged and presented the day are Carel Kriek, Danie Bester, Derik Kuün, Gert Kriek and Wouter Nel.

Some of the tools that stood out were:

Lely
Northmec’s Lely Attis PT 130 bale wrapper picks up a round bale in the row, wraps it tightly and puts it down neatly – all within seconds.
An operator can continuously see how Valtrac’s Pöttinger Novacat Alpha Motion pre-cutter makes short cuts of grass.
Jupidex
Piet Vorster of Jupidex shows off the inventive designs of the F5500 McHale baler. The advanced grease and oil system is one of McHale’s innovations that saves the farmer a lot of time and effort.
New Holland
New Holland’s BR6090 Roll-Bar ron round baler rolls a sturdy and neat bale out of its belly every time.
JOhn Deere
Block bales still have a place in the hay industry and the technology that John Deere put in their 359 showed that they understand the farmer’s needs and read the market correctly.
CLAAS
Claas’ Jaguar 870 with a 3 m grass pick-up in front, consumes the grass and spits it finely and processes it in a wagon towed by the Axion 920.
Kubota
Kubota’s M8540 series is perfect for haymaking. Jupidex’s Kverneland Taarap TA 9542 single rotor power rake makes neat, uniform windrows that can pick up the baler easily and cleanly.
Balfour
Mikail Greyling and Leandri Strydom of Kemin introduce their Nutrisave management system. These are vaccines that are added to preserve as much of the nutrients in grass and lucerne as possible during hay and silage making. Xander Pieterse is a sales consultant for ProAgri.
balfour
900 visitors attended the Hay Day.

 

balfour
Staalplaas is located in Heidelberg and previously bent farmers’ steel to order and rolled it to build livestock handling equipment. In 2016, they decided to manufacture the end products themselves. Deon and Ilze Kriel show the farmers their neat products.