Platte Valley Equipment hopes to move into its new home in the spring or summer. The new location is at the intersection of Highway 81 and 430th Street, about 2.5 miles south of the current store. The original schedule was for the end of 2024, but it’s taken longer. “Most of the work has moved to the interior,” said Patrick Klitz, operations manager. “We’re still doing some concrete around the outside, and we have some of our lot work to do. Most of the work is inside, plumbing, the electrical, putting walls up.” “We’ll probably start moving as soon as we can. I think the hope is we can start moving in sometime after planting. We’ll move as soon as we can,” Klitz said. The current building will go up for sale. The building will resemble the Fremont location, which opened in 2020. Klitz said the bigger location would accommodate large equipment. “We’ll be able to have more equipment inside for repairs,” Klitz said, “and we should be able to add a few more diesel technicians to t
Citing a lack of skilled labor across the agricultural, construction and commercial landscaping sectors, John Deere recently unveiled four new autonomous machines for 2025. On the agriculture front, an autonomous 9RX tractor will be targeted for larger operations. The tractor will feature a second-generation autonomy kit, 16 cameras to enable a 360-degree view of the field, and the ability to calculate tillage depth more accurately at larger distances. Also, a new autonomous 5ML orchard tractor for air blast spraying is now available. Offered with a diesel engine, the tractor comes with Lidar sensors to address the dense canopies found in orchards. According to John Deere, an battery electric version of the 5ML will be on the market in the future. For the construction sector, John Deere introduced the 460 P-Tier autonomous articulated dump truck, mainly for quarry operations. Also, a battery electric mower for commercial landscaping has been released. The mower comes equipped with
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A Canadian farm goods store chain is closing all its stores and seeking creditor protection, putting an end to days of speculation about the chain's future from its customers, who now have to look for alternatives. Peavey Mart, headquartered in Red Deer, Alta., announced the closure of locations in Ontario and Nova Scotia on Thursday as part of what it referred to in a news release as an "organizational restructuring." However, in an update on Monday, Peavey confirmed it would begin "closures and liquidation efforts" immediately, shuttering all 90 Peavey Mart locations, as well as six MainStreet Hardware stores run by the same company. It has also sought an initial order for creditor protection from the Court of King's Bench of Alberta, a move the company said came after a thorough evaluation of all of its options. "The Canadian retail industry is experiencing unprecedented challenges, including record-low consumer confidence, inflationary pressures, rising operating costs and ongo
Manitoba is one of Canada's biggest hog producers with millions being annually shipped to, and processed in, the U.S. So the threat of 25-per-cent tariffs being levied on Canadian goods, including the agriculture sector, is worrisome for farmers in southern Manitoba. "We obviously don't want it. Nobody really wants this or needs it," said John Nickel, who has nearly 6,000 sows — and piglets being born daily — at his two hog farms near Lowe Farm and Tolstoi. The hogs are sold to a farm in Minnesota, with Nickel sending a truck load there every week. He's not sure what the full extent of tariffs would do to his production but says it would be challenging to find an alternative market to sell the livestock. Nickel said he could possibly hold off exports for one to three weeks, but sooner or later the pigs would have to move to the next phase of production. "It would be really difficult for Canada to absorb just the production from our farm — never mind that we are far from the only f
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