Upgrading Your Farm Equipment

Thursday, March 19, 2026

Look at the full scope of your operation

By Sabrina Cataldo

Innovation often comes in small steps, but with combines, for example, it has made a big leap.

In the last five years, combine manufacturers have significantly increased capacity, and larger Class 10 combines have become more common in the marketplace. While this newfound capacity can increase harvest speeds, it could actually slow down your operation if other equipment isn’t upgraded to match.

“When you buy a combine with extra capacity, and you don’t have the downstream equipment to keep up with it, you’re creating a bottleneck,” says Kyle Bennett, sales manager, agricultural products at Brandt. “When you have a combine that can cover so many acres an hour, you have to be able to get that crop off the combines to your semis to your grain facility and back to the field to keep going.”

In other words, if augers and grain carts aren’t upgraded to higher-capacity models, in-field operation could slow down.

“The worst-case scenario is production stops, and you lose time in your day. This is particularly a problem in Western Canada, when there is only a short window of harvest time due to weather,” Bennett says.

In Ontario, there hasn’t been as big a shift to the larger class of combines and, therefore, not as much need for higher-capacity augers and grain carts, due to smaller farm footprints than in Western Canada. However, there’s still a potential bottleneck during field preparation, particularly when it comes to using high-speed discs.

“In spring field prep, you have a really tight window for planting. A high-speed disc can cover more acres in less time, but you need a tractor with adequate horsepower to match that disc and give you the most optimal setup.”

Bennett explains that the most underestimated part of using high-speed discs is ensuring you have the horsepower required to deliver maximum results. “You need to spec the high-speed disc based on the power you have available, so you’re not buying two machines, especially in this economy.

“You need to purchase a high-speed disc based on the horsepower of the tractor you have. It’s easier for a person to match a disc to their tractor’s horsepower than to buy a more powerful disc and have to upgrade their tractor.”

Even with all equipment upgraded, farmers can still run into setbacks caused by parts availability.

The last thing they need is to have a two-dollar bolt as the reason a million-dollar piece of equipment is sitting idle. That’s why a backup plan is important: stocking key parts on your farm or carrying a secondary auger are just a couple of examples.

“For customers to have the highest level of satisfaction with a product, dealers need to have those parts stocked and on the shelf. It’s also best practice for farmers to have high-wear parts on their farms as a preventative in case something breaks down,” Bennett suggests.

He also notes that while many farmers do pre-season inspections on their combines, “augers are often the last thing they think of. It’s important to do that preventative maintenance right after harvest when issues are still fresh.”

Automation isn’t something that many farmers associate with grain handling, but it could come into play when making decisions about equipment size over the coming years. It’s currently unknown whether autonomy will speed up or slow down how quickly grain comes off the field, though.

Bennett says there are two paths to autonomy: using the same machines we have today but running them autonomously, and returning to smaller machines while using more of them.

“Autonomy is here, and it’s going to continue to grow and be an integral part of growers’ operations in the future.”

When farmers are about to make a shift from a Class 7 or 8 combine to a Class 10, it may be time to chat with their dealer about converting their entire operation.

“A dealer plays a huge role when you’re thinking about upgrading to new equipment. They need to understand your operation and the challenges you have. At the end of the day, they’re there to solve problems,” Bennett says.

“Some considerations include labour, costs and field sizes — dealers need to have a good understanding of their customers’ challenges and be able to look at their equipment through the lens of how this solves them.

“Grain carts that need only one operator could cut back on labour. A 16-inch auger unloading more quickly could eliminate the need for an additional semi. And then the dealer works with the customer to put together an equipment plan to solve those challenges.”

In addition to consulting with your dealer, Bennett suggests the best way to learn about equipment upgrades is from your peers.

“It’s that coffee shop talk — seeing what your neighbours are doing and what’s worked for them.

“There are also a lot of influential people in the industry you can learn from — growing amounts of podcasts and YouTube videos about what people are doing and what works in their operations.”

When determining farm equipment upgrades, Bennett recommends looking at the full scope of your operation: “What kind of fleet do you have? How many acres are you covering? What do you have for labour? What is your capacity at your grain bin site? How much geography do you cover in your operation, and how many kilometres are you from the bin site?

“All of those considerations come into play when you’re making upgrading decisions now and in the future.” BF