fresh focus

With more than 100 hectares of sweet potatoes to tend to, Doug and Ann Nilsson need a lot of horsepower. In keeping with their passion for investing their energy in something they enjoy, they also boast one of the largest Kubota fleets in New Zealand, with an impressive 17 tractors, including the M7-171 models, first released in 2016.

To put the machine through some meaty challenges, we hooked it up to some Breviglieri tillage gear, ranging in size from 3.5 metres up to five metres. The five-metre power harrow provided the biggest ask putting it under some pressure, but I was really impressed by the Kubota’s performance.

The sweet potato ground we had for testing was harvested back in early spring when things were still wet, so the ground was left