Scania has been supporting the Australian cotton industry and farmers across the country with irrigation engines and gensets for many years.

In Goondiwindi’s cotton belt that spreads across the Darling Downs in southern Queensland, there are more than 200 Scania engines hard at work, pumping water from rivers and pushing it through irrigation channels and into water storages.

“We are delivering the lifeblood to cotton farmers,” says André Arm, Scania National Manager for Power Solutions.

“Scania Engines have built a robust reputation for reliability and dependability across this region, just as they have in many other corners of the world where water is scarce, and farmers cannot afford to waste an opportunity to store or move water in order to safeguard their growing season.

“Scania’s engines are strong, powerful and able to work all-day, every day, across extended periods, then stand idle during the off season, and then power up at the touch of a button. Of course, regular servicing around 500 hours is vital to ensure reliability, especially when the pumping window can be very short.

“Our engines are also designed to be able to cope with low load running, as well as continuous use, and our unique saver ring technology prevents carbon build up on piston crowns,” he says.

“In addition, Scania can help operators reduce their carbon footprint by switching to biodiesel to run their engines, which can reduce CO2 emissions by more than 80 percent. Operators may add biodiesel in any format, from B10 to B100 with no hardware or software changes needed, and no noticeable loss of performance. Using biodiesel would be most beneficial where the engines are running continuously.

“Cotton farmers, like all commodity growers, are sensitive to running costs of their agricultural machinery,” André says. “That’s another reason why Scania has been so successful. Farmers have been able to make direct comparisons on fuel consumption between our engines and their older non-Scania units, and the results are startling. In most cases we’re tens of litres better per operating hour than other engines, and those cost savings surely add up when you are running 24/7.

“We also have been successful in converting farmers to our gensets in order to provide not only reliable electrical power, but also thanks to our efficient engines, power at a lower cost per kilowatt/hour,” he says.

Jason Rendle is Scania’s Account Manager for Power Solutions, and he says that impending telematics advances will bring even more control and information into the

farmers’ hands.

“Scania has technology that will provide real-time data to the mobile device operated by farmers, so they can start or stop their engines remotely. They can see fuel consumption and many other data points on their phone, which is extremely helpful for farmers who operate vast properties with multiple engines and pumping sites, meaning they don’t necessarily need to stand over an engine to get performance data or simply to switch it on or off. This is one of the additional ways Scania can help farmers make more efficient use of their time.

“We also have engine monitoring systems that can display on a desktop a full breakdown of how an engine is running in real time or on a historical basis so operators can spot exceptions to the norm, which may presage the need for maintenance or preventative component replacement, to avoid in-service breakdowns.

“These are just some of the additional advantages Scania can provide farmers to help make their lives easier and save them money,” Jason says.

“Our engines in five, six and V8 cylinder configurations have all the power and performance farmers need in Australia to improve their yields and lower their operating costs. We have a strong reliability track record operating in some of the toughest environments on this continent and we have a large core of customers who are more than happy not only with our product, but also with our aftersales support, which is probably one of the most important areas of our entire business.

“At Scania we are all committed to uptime and ensuring availability of the engine or genset when it is needed,” Jason says.