A touch of sunshine makes optimists of us all, and this was certainly the case at this year’s National Ploughing Championships, which bathed in a warm Indian summer as many farmers came to the event with cheque book at the ready.
At the close of play on Thursday afternoon, there were a good number of machinery dealers who were quietly happy with the amount of business that had been done over the three days, although the general consensus was that most of the sales were made on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The level of trade enjoyed over the week defied the critics of the event who are only too happy to point out that the footfall may be large, but serious buyers constitute only a tiny part of it.
While there may be an element of truth to this, smaller companies such as the JF Centre Ltd, Tullamore report selling a good number of items from its range, with Alan Gethings, proprietor, telling Agriland that a dozen Pronar machines had been sold from the stand at the event.
Grant free but selling
There was a similar story from Dermot Tobin of Castleagri, based in Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary.
The company’s swivel spreader had sold out, despite it not attracting any grant and being generally frowned upon by advisory bodies.
There are two other ranges he imports, Murray Machinery from Scotland and FK machinery from Poland. The latter makes bale un-wrappers and various attachments for front loaders, including beat choppers and mixers.
All these were attracting strong interest, as may be expected, with the competitive prices being quoted and the winter housing season being only at the other end of autumn.
Small is beautiful
Generally speaking, it was the competitively priced end of the market that was attracting the greater interest. Egmont Agri of Co. Cork also had a busy stand, with the latest SaMASZ mowers being on show.
Although there is nothing radically new about these machines, the manufacturer is upgrading its image with an industrial designer now on the staff to ensure that the machines look good, in addition to working well.
The first results are now in Ireland and the new two-tone styling does indeed make the machines appear sleek and professional, and, as the trade is becoming increasingly aware, machines need to look good to sell.
Also on the stand, was a smaller tub mixer which may not have the tank like structure of those products at the top end of the market, but they fit the bill on smaller farms where there isn’t the intensity or size of feeding, yet easing the daily work load is still all important.
Innovation at the Ploughing
Higher up the budgetary scale, Tyrone Trailers was enjoying a fruitful Ploughing, with strong interest in its new 20t dumper and its latest batch of fuel bowsers being all sold out.
Presently, there are no worries about keeping the factory bus, and even if there were the need to innovate and create new products is as important as ever.
The company strongly believes in the old adage that standing still is falling behind, hence we can expect continual refinement of, and additions to, the range.
Perhaps the greatest success story of all, is that of RT sales of Castleisland, which won the machine of the year award with its new Hedge Cutter and tractor mount.
By Thursday afternoon, the company had sold somewhere near 40 items, 21 being sold on Wednesday alone. This is a terrific achievement for a new company and demonstrates the benefit of thinking outside of the box.
Yet, there is another side to this success and that is that RT Sales Ltd have brought hedgecutter production home to Ireland, giving the UK brands, which are mostly the one company behind the various liveries, some serious competition.
Positive moves
Another positive note was sounded by Merlo, which is busy establishing itself in Ireland as a force to be reckoned with in the telehandler market.
Although the brand has been available over here for many years, the new arrangements are being welcomed by existing customers, while further additions to the dealership network are being brought on board.
While the small ticket items might have been faring well, the larger manufacturers were not left out of the new wave of optimism and Kverneland had been kept busy over the course of the Ploughing.
On the stand it had the latest Rotage 4040F rotary cultivator, which it intends demonstrating this autumn, taking the machinery out to the farms to reassure customers that their money will be soundly invested, something that is not always possible in a static environment.
Mixed bag at the Ploughing
Although it was the smaller companies with more budget orientated products that tended to report the greatest satisfaction with the show.
This may be because the larger machines have presently priced themselves out of the market, or the fact that there were very few major tractor brands present, so the bigger buyers stayed away.
Yet just about every machinery exhibitor was happy with the event and were pleased that they attended, one even ventured to say that those that chose to stay at home this year could well come to regret it.
To what extent this message will have any effect on the Irish machinery trade next year has yet to be seen, but those who believe that these large shows have little value have been given good cause to think again.
This post was originally published on here
