The Advantage May 2019

SPECIAL
DELIVERY
For four generations the Swenson family has been
farming in Delta, B.C. It’s not an easy soil to work,
but it is nutrient rich, and the Swensons use it to
produce 35 million pounds of potatoes annually.
In April, Avenue Machinery delivered Rod Swenson
Farms their first Fendt. After decades of using
other machines the farm opted for a Fendt 516.
Joel Swenson says, “The Fendt 516 came out
in a comparable price range, but with more bells
and whistles. We’re excited for it”. The Swensons
realized that Fendt would best serve them to take
advantage of precision farming. Much of the leading
potato farming equipment is manufactured by
Grimme, a German company. Fendt is also German
manufactured making it better suited to work with
this equipment as the tractor’s computer more easily
communicates with the implements.
The advantages of precision farming are quickly
felt in areas threatened by urban expansion.
Farmers who may be feeling the land squeeze are
quick to adopt the advantages afforded by Fendt’s
on-board computer system.
Avenue Machinery has invested heavily in training
both our technicians and sales teams to serve
customers wanting to be on the front-line of these
farming techniques. Our technicians are sent to
advanced factory training in Germany and the United
States.
Some of the Swenson’s Fendt 516 features are; a
built in loader scale, programmable loader operations
and an automatic shake function. Avenue Machinery
added another nice feature, a Swenson’s nameplate
that pays homage to the family’s Swedish lineage.
A Swenson plate on the back of the 516
One of the farms smaller piles
Dan O’Reilly of Avenue & Joel Swenson
3