October 19, 2017 | Chris Bettschen
Pattison Tillage Demo Day Review
Fall is an opportune time for seed bed preparation and reclamation tillage in Western Canada. It is generally drier and allows farmers access to areas such as sloughs and depressions that they may not have been able to seed if it was a wet spring. Once the crop is in the bin, farmers can work on field to remove excess residue, shape water drains, remove obstacles, apply some nutrients and reclaim previously wet areas of the fields. One disadvantage is the unpredictability of fall weather which may end fall work abruptly. Dealers are still busy with harvest and other customers as well so farmers are often limited what they can see for product demos. Pattisson Ag believe they have come up with a solution and invited us to join them in the inaugural year.
In early October, Pattison Ag held a ride and drive style field day for tillage customers. Running three days, they were able to showcase some of the most popular pieces of tillage equipment in Western Canada as well as their larger John Deere tractors. Customers were invited to attend either Tuesday or Wednesday to meet with industry reps and learn about the tillage products. Monday was reserved for setup as well as some product training for the Pattison ag Sales and Service staff. Thursday was reserved for more staff training and time for the customers who were looking to make a purchase in the near future. Though there was some cool weather and rain, many customers traveled to the Yorkton SK based event from as far as Swift Current SK. Overall there were more than 100 customers that came to the days as well as more than 50 Pattison Ag staff over the week.
Attending for Vaderstad were Ryan Davis, Kris Cherewyk and Chris Bettschen from Customer Service, Darrell Beattie from Genuine Parts and Goran Oloffson from R & D as well as company president Birgitta Ewerlof. We had the Tempo V12 on display and the Carrier 1225 in the field. By the end of the week, in 25+ runs we had been over our tillage area several times with the carrier and ended up moving over into some other display areas that had not been tilled yet. The Carrier generated many positive comments relative to our competitors at the Field Day. Our message to everyone remains: “The Carrier isn’t for every application or every acre. It is a residue management tool and can do that better than anyone else on the market today.”
We also had a lot of activity around the Tempo over the week. Many people had seen the tweets and postings regarding the numerous world record achievements for planting speed and efficiency. Vaderstad products were also featured on GX94 radio and CTV Yorkton during the week.
This was the first local demo day of its kind from our dealership partners. It’s success ensures that it will not be the last one we see. If you would like to know more about Vaderstad tillage and planting products, please feel free to ask your local dealer.