It is not just California farming that Italian farm machinery manufacturers are interested in. Many of the companies exhibiting at the recent 34th annual International Agricultural and Gardening Machinery Exhibition (EIMA) in Bologna, Italy left no doubt that the U.S. is a key market for them. Many like Tonutti have been aggressively marketing their equipment in the U.S. and around the world. They view the U.S. as one of the more positive markets right now.EIMA, organized by Italian National Union of Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers, featured more than 1,700 exhibitors (1,100 Italian manufacturers) in more than 20 giant exhibit halls totaling more than 1.6 million square feet housing 22,000 machinery models and innumerable other suppliers of agricultural parts and services. More than 100,000 people visit the show annually.

* I use a 4.5-kilowatt portable welder with a Kohler motor for backup power at the house. It''s not quiet, and it uses too much fuel, but it works well.* I use a Generac 4-kilowatt gas generator to run a freezer, refrigerator, lights and to energize a fence during power outages. It''s just big enough to power a 2-horsepower air compressor.* I bought a 60-kilowatt diesel-powered automatic generator in 1994 when we put up new hog barns. Previously I had a 40-kilowatt PTO generator. Trouble was, it took 15 minutes to get a tractor going and everything hooked up. And we didn''t have an alarm system, so if nobody was home we were in trouble. The automatic setup, including a 400-amp transfer switch and other wiring, cost $20,000.

Consequently, PD pumps have had to be redesigned for improved performance to justify their premium prices. Rotor geometry has been significantly improved for gentle handling of viscous materials with delicate inclusions, such as baked beans and yogurt with fruit. But the greatest technical advancement is CIP-compatible PD pumps. "That is a big leap forward in this industry," Jones says. "This is very sophisticated equipment, machined to within thousandths of an inch, and you don''t want to send an army of relatively low-skilled sanitation workers to take apart PD pumps for cleaning and possibly damage them."

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