Power is the driver for technology

The recent rise in the price of cereals has given a lift to the farm machinery sector. That view was given yesterday by Duncan Russell of the Agricultural Engineers Association as he surveyed some £10 million worth of tractors, cultivators and sprayers at a working demonstration on a farm outside Brechin.

Three years ago, arable farmers invested heavily in new machinery following a major spike in the value of grain. While that machinery was still working efficiently and well, Russell reckoned that "farmers always like to see things that are a little bit different".

For those attending yesterday's event, one of the differences was the continuing increase in size of both tractors and equipment. "This increase in scale is a continuing thing," said Russell. "Basically if you want to cover more ground you have to go faster or have more width. Both of these take more power."

Slightly hampering any major boost in machinery sales has been the increasing cost of the equipment, he said. "Most of the machinery is now imported and we are suffering from and adverse currency swing."

Russell stated that, other than in a few niche markets, there were now few UK-based manufacturers but one of those who made the journey north to demonstrate their direct drill were Claydons from Suffolk. "We got into this business when my father failed to find anything on the market that would sow our cereal acreage without the cost of ploughing and without creating the 'soil pudding' you can get with a minimum tillage system," said Spencer Claydon.

He claimed the cost of sowing cereals directly into the soil with their machine was only about one third of a plough and cultivate system and half of a minimum tillage one.So far he has not sold many machines in Scotland and he was looking for someone to take on a dealership in this country.

Unlike the other manufacturers on show yesterday, his company is benefiting from the swing in currency and he said he was selling to countries such as Finland, France, Latvia and Lithuania.

Earlier, Russell had pointed out the importance of getting the transfer of the additional power of today's tractors into actual output.

"You have got to get the power without damaging the soil," he stated, adding that choice of tyres was very important. However, some farmers do not agree with that, with a tyre expert commenting: "When they are buying a tractor they look at the gadgets.They look at the hydraulic lifts and they look at the cab but they often forget to look at the tyres."

Jon McGott, from Trelleborg, who supply tyres to many of the top tractor manufacturers, added that while the cost of a set of big tyres might go up to 10,000, this was less than 10 per cent of the overall purchase price of the tractor.

He then predicted there would soon be a solution to one of the big issues facing farmers using tractors.

"Tyres work most efficiently in fields at pressures lower than those giving the optimum output on roads," he said.

It is not practical to keep shifting the pressure to suit but McGott predicted that soon all tractor manufacturers would supply a variable tyre pressure piece of equipment to solve the problem on the move.