Latest news with #harvesting
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Zoomlion Advances Intelligent Agricultural Machinery and Upgrades Service Support to Safeguard Summer Grain Harvest
CHANGSHA, China, June 9, 2025 /CNW/ -- Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. ("Zoomlion"; is spearheading all-out efforts to safeguard the summer harvest as China's "Three Summer" jobs – summer harvesting, planting, and field management – are now in full swing. In the Changzhuang Town of Suiping County, Zhumadian City, Henan Province, Zoomlion's grain combine harvesters are the "vanguards" of high-quality harvesting; while in Anhui, the brand's PL80 crawler-type harvester achieved outstanding results in the mechanical harvesting loss reduction skills competition as well. Zhang Xiaobo, a combine harvester driver in Suiping with over a decade of experience, is operating Zoomlion TE100-DH this summer, the first hybrid power harvester in China. "The harvester is powered by an electric motor, offering fast response times and simplified gear shifting. It can adjust power output intelligently to keep the engine running at optimal conditions, resulting in fuel savings of 30% compared to traditional models," said Zhang Xiaobo. "The TE100-DH not only has very low failure rate, Zoomlion's after-safes team can also respond 24 hours a day to guarantee the harvesting." As the agricultural industry continues to evolve, Zoomlion's intelligent technologies are advancing the agricultural jobs to reach new heights. By leveraging the BeiDou positioning system alongside AI-driven path planning, automatic obstacle avoidance, and remote instruction capabilities, Zoomlion's unmanned harvesting machines have achieved impressive precision and efficiency, leading to significantly increased harvest yields. Moreover, Zoomlion has transformed its service offerings by implementing comprehensive digital and intelligent strategies. The company has innovated its service system to boost operational efficiency by establishing an intelligent control center, four service columns, and four support centers. Additionally, it has expanded its network with 107 new standard agricultural machinery service stations to ensure complete coverage and formed a large-scale service team of 2,200 professionals dedicated to providing quick responses, on-site assistance, and immediate troubleshooting. "We have successfully completed the construction of our integrated warehousing system, which includes a central factory, provincial airports, city-level centers, dealers, mobile spare parts support vehicles, and direct service spare parts packages. Through the ZBP service spare parts system, WMS warehouse management system, and TMS logistics visualization system, we have fully achieved digital processing, intelligent resource coordination, and enhanced customer service visibility. This has significantly improved the speed and timeliness of our service spare parts supply," said Huo Xiaofeng, Co-General Manager of Zoomlion Agriculture Machinery Co., Ltd. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Zoomlion View original content to download multimedia:
Free Malaysia Today
a day ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Job of last resort puts further strain on Malaysia's palm sector
Skilled harvesters use hand-held sickles attached to long poles to cut down fruit from trees that can weigh as much as 25kg. KUALA LUMPUR : Malaysia's palm oil industry is grappling with a dwindling labour pool as workers increasingly shun physically demanding jobs at plantations, a trend that threatens to exacerbate production woes in the major grower. The sector has become the 'last choice' for foreign labourers – the backbone of the industry – and locals, who view the work as dirty, dangerous and difficult, said Roslin Azmy Hassan, the head of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association, an industry group. 'Many are choosing jobs in urban areas,' he added. 'It's a Herculean task faced by all the plantation companies,' Roslin said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur, referring to difficulties attracting labour. 'We have been pushing hard for mechanisation, but the key work is harvesting. 'There's no machine that's able to achieve the productivity of a human being,' he added. Labour issues, along with low productivity from old trees and crop disease, are crimping output growth in the world's second-biggest grower. Roslin estimates that these factors are leading to revenue losses of as much as RM11 billion (US$2.6 billion) each year for the Malaysian palm oil industry. Palm is the world's most widely used vegetable oil and can be found in products from chocolate to cosmetics and biofuel, but the broader sector continues to be plagued by production issues. Top grower Indonesia has even turned to tiny bugs from Africa in an effort to boost output. Roslin said replanting costs have surged in recent years, discouraging smaller Malaysian operators from replenishing their palm plantations, while a fungus that causes stem rot has doubled its spread since 2017 to around 14% of the nation's planted area. He expects output will climb to 19.7 million tonnes this year, slightly higher than 2024, but still below pre-pandemic levels. Malaysia's plantations suffered their worst-ever labour shortage during the pandemic as border curbs halted the flow of people from countries including Indonesia and Bangladesh, crimping production. Since then, the sector has struggled to boost its foreign workforce to pre-Covid levels. The industry is trialling the use of robots to mechanise some parts of estate operations, but collecting palm bunches is still very much a manual job. Skilled harvesters use hand-held sickles attached to long poles to cut down fruit from trees that can weigh as much as 25kg. 'I don't know how long it's going to last, but things are getting more and more difficult,' said Roslin, referring to labour issues. 'It's a big struggle not only to entice workers, but also to keep them,' he added.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Elis James and John Robins #443 - Mockproof Robins, Medium Cod +1 and Good Black Eps
After a week when John offered apology texts to Elis, Dave and the production team for being in a bad mood, he's back to his Billy best. There's a bright ray of sunshine in his heart and nethers which clears the studio air. No black eps today and Elis can leave the studio without an impending sense of worry. But there are challenges afoot for our hero, as he contends with holidaying with one whose administrative approach sits in bleak contrast to his own. Luckily he's superchillathon, and amidst such admin fears there's a decision to build a harvesting coop for the nation's Good Eggs. Plus Elis's mocking of a reaction to some quality snap bags sees the Welshman hoisted by a double sealed petard. Check out this week's Bureau bonus on Saturday, only on BBC Sounds, where rumour has it there's a very special guest joining the chaps. Want to get in touch with everything from bons oeufs to packaging retention, well send it to elisandjohn@ or WhatsApp it over on 07974 293 022.
Zawya
12-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Record rebound in agriculture machinery sales as South Africa's rains boost crop yields
After a unsteady start to the 2024/25 summer crop season with delayed rains despite the La Niña forecasts, production improved significantly as the season progressed. Excellent rains Although excessive and consequently delaying the onset of harvesting in some areas, seasonal rains were excellent since the beginning of the year across the production regions. This, combined with an upswing in the Agribusiness Confidence Index (ACI) helped lift the agriculture machinery sales from the doldrums. The quarterly Agbiz/IDC ACI update showed a sharply increase of 11 points from Q4 of 2024, reaching the highest level since Q4 of 2021 to 70 points in Q1 of 2025 underpinned by the benign interest rate outlook, improved efficiencies at ports, and progress in containment of animal diseases. The latest data from the South African Agriculture Machinery Association (SAAMA) showed a sustained recovery following a massive contraction in 2024 with the monthly sales for April 2025 up by 9% year‑on‑year (y/y) at 573 units comprised of 92% and 8% tractors and combine harvesters respectively. Total agriculture machinery sales for Q1 of 2025 increased by a whopping 27% relative to the same period in 2024 at 1,827units, and were up 22% for the year to April 2025 at 2,400 units. Ramping up harvesting Though delayed by incessant late seasonal rains, farmers will soon ramp up their harvesting of 4.44 million hectares under summer crops, and further intent to plant 827,970 ha under winter crops for 2025. Commodity prices have been excellent this season with maize touching best levels of over R6,800/t and R5,600/t for white and yellow respectively. Similarly, sunflower and soybean prices reached highs of R10,800/t (+20%y/y) and R9,094/t (+12% y/y) respectively this season. Although South Africa's economy remains pedestrian with headwinds from the global economy, the growth outlook is still optimistic including that for agriculture. So far, indications are that we are likely to experience further excellent agriculture conditions for the 2025/26 season as forecasts show probabilities of ENSO‑neutral conditions (El Niño, La Niña, and the Southern Oscillation) towards year end. The combination of the lower interest rate outlook amid low inflation and a stronger rand exchange rate bodes well for machinery sales as most are imported.
