Growing businesses across the agricultural sector understand the importance of lubrication when it comes to keeping an operation running efficiently. From fruit pickers and tractors to combine harvesters, all pieces of farm machinery need a reliable lubricant to ensure their inner workings can move effectively if they are to maintain an optimum production rate.
While it’s crucial that oils and other kinds of agricultural lubricant perform their many tasks, greasing and cooling parts while protecting them from corrosives and contaminants, lubrication in a rural setting has other concerns to contend with. Operators of agricultural enterprises who are keen to safeguard their investment are now seeking ways to preserve the land they work, ensuring it stays protected from harmful substances that can cause lasting damage.
Threats to subsoil and water systems
When agricultural equipment or mobile farming solutions are stationary for a period of time, some quantity of leaked fluid is an unavoidable occurrence. These vehicle leaks typically result in a relentless stream of deposits forming underneath them. The fluids naturally seep down into the earth, which alters the quality of the soil before joining water systems located far beneath the ground. If the compounds that are employed in the agricultural lubricants include inorganic elements that contain toxins, the consequences can be catastrophic and costly. The toxic contamination can damage both land and crops, and can cause considerable harm to the health of grazing livestock.
Government guidance on environmental concerns in agriculture
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs here in the UK has published its ambitious vision in a document entitled “Farming for the Future”. As well as announcing its target of reaching net-zero emissions for 2050, the government document reminded fruit growers, farmers, foresters and others managing rural land that they have an important part to play when it comes to protecting our countryside.
The role of agricultural enterprises
To stay in step with the government’s eco-friendly ambitions, enterprises operating within the agricultural industry must consider both the equipment they employ and the products they choose to keep it running effectively. It is vital that they assess any potential hazards their methods present to the natural world.
Although seeking out solutions offered at lower costs at the expense of the environment may seem attractive to some farm operators, it is ultimately self-limiting and will hurt production and profits in the future. Over time, damaging the land, which represents the foundation of an agricultural business, can destroy any chance it has of enduring.
Today, modern, eco-friendly alternatives are readily available for farming operations to purchase from dependable lubrication suppliers. High-grade and green-minded oils are manufactured by world-leading lubricant manufacturers like Mobil and Q8. While created using an exceptionally viscous vegetable oil as a base, these environmentally sound oils can still deliver high level of performance to compete with their synthetic counterparts. The lubricants are infused with carefully selected additive packages that include non-toxic improvers, which work to enhance the natural capabilities of the base oil. This means that the unfortunate scenario of environmental damage can be easily remedied.
