The modern agricultural machinery of today, including harrows, tractors, combine harvesters, fertiliser spreaders, balers, corn pickers and grape harvesting machines, is continually exposed to heavy-duty usage, extreme high and low temperatures, humidity and often harsh operating conditions.
Correct lubrication of farming equipment has multiple benefits for enterprises and their owners. It can enable them to achieve optimum performance, improve profits, cut maintenance costs, increase productivity and even overcome the specific challenges of unfavourable temperatures, demanding conditions and severe environments.
This easy-to-follow guide will explain some of the key aspects concerning agricultural lubrication, from the types of lubricant used in the farming sector to the different types typically used.
Advantages of lubricant use in agriculture
In modern farming and agriculture, efficient lubrication offers several vital benefits that assist in maximising productivity and minimising costs. Through investment in appropriate lubrication, firms can achieve the following:
Improve performance and effectiveness of equipment
The key role of all high-quality lubricants is to improve the reliability of equipment while boosting its performance levels and enhancing productivity. Farming equipment and machinery is often exposed to unfavourable operating conditions, extremely high and low temperatures, heavy usage and weather that is equally troublesome, making a carefully chosen lubricant absolutely crucial to keep machinery always running efficiently.
Lubricants utilised in agriculture are developed specifically with a mind to maximising the performance levels of the farming equipment they serve, providing excellent wear protection, ensuring optimum energy efficiency and offering exceptional performance even in the most extreme working conditions. Furthermore, an effective lubricant is specially formulated to prohibit contamination, protecting the equipment against corrosion, rust and oxidation, while providing the longest oil drain intervals possible to reduce the overall consumption of oil, keeping costs down.
All of these stand-out features give an increase in equipment uptime, a greater level of operational reliability and longer lasting performance, regardless of the terrain that the equipment must work on or the weather conditions it has to operate in. Essentially, these lubricant properties will empower your farming equipment so it can perform to its true potential, enabling your agricultural operations to run as effectively as possible.
Protecting and prolonging the lifespan of equipment
Lubrication can also offer greater protection levels and a longer service life for your farming equipment. As machinery is usually faced with severe weather conditions and harsh environments, it requires a lubricant that has been specifically developed to hold up against such heavy demands and deliver seamless protection.
Every heavy-duty oil, grease and transmission fluid that is recommended for use in the farming sector has a commonality – they all provide premium levels of protection, reduced downtime, outstanding lubrication and excellent resistance to corrosion, oxidation, water and contamination, along with greater resistance to coping with high pressure and heavy loads.
By ensuring your equipment is protected against premature wear and mechanical failure with a dedicated agricultural lubricant, you can prolong its lifespan and make sure that the machinery you purchase and use is working as hard as possible, and for a longer duration of time.
Lower costs for maintenance and reduction of total ownership costs
If you can always keep your equipment well-protected, you can stop any unnecessary breakdowns and minimise the chance of equipment failure. Possessing protection for all seasons will result in a reduction of maintenance costs. This is because lubricants prevent machinery degradation and increase their reliability and availability, offering a higher percentage of uptime for your farming equipment.
However, not every lubricant is manufactured to the same standard. To ensure the optimal results, select a high-quality lubricant that has been developed to deliver. While such a product might appear more costly on first inspection, due to its impressive performance, protection, durability and effectiveness, you’ll find you save money over the long term.
Moreover, a high-performing oil or grease can substantially lower your total cost of ownership (TCO). This not only means that such a product will save you money by downsizing your maintenance costs, but it will also minimise the associated expenses of lost production resulting from downtime when equipment fails.
Increasing your profitability and yields
If you’re able to keep your farming equipment running efficiently throughout every season, ensure it always performs effectively even under the harshest conditions, protect it from damage and degradation, minimise downtime and maximise its dependability, you can experience optimum performance and a smooth and streamlined operation.
Achieving maximum performance levels will results in a far greater yield, and this, in turn, will lead to substantially higher profits. It also increases the future growth potential for your agricultural enterprise. Ultimately, making progress and being rewarded with profitability are two key objectives every farmer works towards.
Understanding the different kinds of agricultural lubricants
Picking the proper lubricant for your requirements is key if you want to cut your operational expenses, maximise equipment and increase your operation’s overall productivity. The following are some of the key types of agricultural lubricants serving today’s farming equipment:
Engine oils
Effective engine lubrication is of paramount importance. Lubricants will not only protect the engine itself, but will also minimise any chance of it becoming damaged and failing, so selecting a high-quality option should always be of the highest priority.
Gear oils and transmission oils
Dedicated agricultural equipment is often constantly exposed to heavy-duty and high loads, which means that only a high-quality transmission fluid is able to keep the machinery up and running effectively for a sustained period of time.
Greases
Built-for-purpose greases are also used in agricultural applications and are typically formulated to manage heavy shocks, heavy loads, water exposure and severe weather conditions.
Summary
Understanding how important correct lubrication is within the farming industry is imperative if enterprises want to obtain a competitive advantage, reduce their TCO, boost productivity, maximise profits and secure their operation’s success.
To make sure they reap the best results and really grow the profitability of a farming enterprise, business owners must be sure to select the appropriate lubricant for their individual needs and implement it efficiently. A wide range of agricultural oils and greases are readily available from leading suppliers and can deliver the right results.
