Väderstad has sold and delivered its first Rapid to Hokkaido Island, in Japan. Paul Birbeck, based in Australia, traveled to Japan to provide the Väderstad importer, MFM with sales and service training, for its brand new European seeding equipment.

The importer is based on the Hokkaido Island, which is one of Japan’s fourth largest islands. MFM, a wholly owned Mitsubishi company, founded in year 1954 has six branches, 45 sales offices, and over 550 employees nation wide.

Japanese farmers work independently, using traditional establishment methods and due to the few contracting businesses around, small equipment is typically requested. The key crops grown on the island are; wheat, potatoes, sugar beets and beans, more specifically 40 000 hectares of wheat is grown. The majority of the crop establishment is by ploughing and power harrowing which leaves a very small establishment window; cereal straw in general are cut high and at crops are harvested at average 30 per cent moisture content.

Birbeck, made a few observations during his visit to the Japanese island on the subject of Japanese ways of farming and cultivation. Due to the small arable land available, the land has been farmed very hard and is in some cases in poor health, evident by the limited amount of worms and poor soil structure. In addition, one can witness a change of focus in terms of farming, as wheat is becoming a more common crop in the farmer’s rotation. Subsidies have been given to level traditional rice paddy field in favor of wheat production.