When faced with a remote location and long winters, Ken Vreeling and his sons find ways to make farming work with better efficiency. With Case IH by their side, the Vreelings are achieving productivity in every season with High-Efficiency Farming.
Few farms in Canada lie north of Ken Vreeling’s Alberta operation. It’s remote, but it’s where his grandparents began clearing and breaking land in 1952. Today, Vreeling is transitioning the land to the fourth generation — his sons Michael and Ryan. Vreeling and his sons farm about 9,300 acres of wheat and canola, with yellow peas as a recent addition. With the challenges of distance and long winters, the Vreelings still share the same goals as all progressive cash grain producers.
“We’re trying to be as efficient as we can with our time, equipment and crops,” Vreeling says.
In fact, the Vreelings have focused on gaining efficiencies in every facet of the operation.
Their fields are large, with some 1,000 acres or more, and their winters are long, dark, and cold, providing a distinct timeline. The Vreelings don’t do fieldwork ahead of May 1 and they target all fall work to be completed by the end of October.
Thanks to big air seeders, Vreeling says, they can handle all spring seeding in 10 days. They also use Case IH equipment to minimize the number of passes needed for planting, smoothing the surface and weed control — covering more than 40,000 acres each year.
At harvest, the Vreelings direct-cut all their crops, saving the time and expense of windrowing. Vreeling adds that the improvements in residue management capabilities with Case IH equipment translates directly to more efficient seeding and more uniform emergence.
All this efficiency helps Vreeling focus on long-term planning with practices like yield monitoring and plant and soil health care. Looking ahead, Vreeling is evaluating the Case IH Advanced Farming System (AFS) Connect, which would give him the ability to monitor the status of his equipment from his office computer or an iPad. Even more appealing, the option of AFS Connect™ would help eliminate the need for service calls.
“We see a lot of opportunities to put new technologies to work in grain farming,” Vreeling says.
Case IH equipment, along with the support received from their Case IH dealer, gives the Vreelings the opportunities to boost their efficiency. Their Case IH lineup includes:
- Steiger® Quadtrac® 485 tractors
- Patriot® 3340 sprayer
- Axial-Flow® 8240 combines
Learn more about the Vreelings and their operation in the latest issue of Farm Forum. Then talk to your Case IH dealer about how our equipment solutions can help you manage your own challenges.
