
Farmers and contractors are showing more interest in machinery and equipment to farm more sustainably and reduce their costs of production.
With soaring costs set to be here for some time to come, better efficiency and lower input costs are increasingly important, say business advisers exhibiting at next month’s Midlands Machinery Show.
Visitors to the Newark Showground on 16-17 November will be able to get plenty of advice from farm business consultants, while also seeing the machinery up close and talking to equipment manufacturers.
“People are interested in machinery that will help them be more efficient and reduce input costs, while still allowing them to continue with the same farming system,” says Alex Olivant, farm business consultant at Active Business Partnerships.
“A lot of people are looking at fertiliser spreaders so they can use variable rate applications, and also direct drills, which used to require a lot of paperwork for grant funding, but now applications are much quicker.
Better efficiency
“There is 100% more interest in efficiency and what the new environmental schemes will push towards. Better efficiency is better for the environment and your back pocket, so it’s a win-win.”
Sam Tugwell, a regional advisor at Velcourt who covers a large area in and around Leicestershire, helped a number of clients last winter to access government capital grants. He will be exhibiting at this year’s event.
“Mostly clients were using the capital grant for reduced input machinery, like direct drills,” says Mr Tugwell. “It wasn’t people who were having a wholesale change to the way they farm, it was those who were upgrading their existing direct drills.
“Farmers are also showing interest in inter-row hoes for cereal crops, and rotary hoes that remove weeds from standing crops,” adds Mr Tugwell. The trend for machinery that reduces inputs and environmental impact to increase in the coming years, he says.
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