GHGAP First report 10.5.12

I have been the joint author of this and it has taken 3 months to put together. [...]]]> The Landbased Education and Training Committee [LETEC] [consisting of the AEA, IAgrE, BAGMA, LANTRA and LANDEX] have produced a Skills Strategy paper which we are now putting out for consultation across the industry –manufacturers, dealers, colleges, academia and government.

I have been the joint author of this and it has taken 3 months to put together. We hope that it considers most of the relevant training issues that face the industry.

It is very important that your training team look at this carefully and we want to hear from you/them whether you agree or disagree but more importantly whether you have better ideas for dealing with recruitment, training and retention and how the colleges can deliver what you need.

Click below for the Consultation paper and please send your comments to a unique email address  skills@aea.uk.com by 30th April 2012.

Landbased Engineering Skills Strategy 2011-2016

Tractors are generally the best indicator of activity and 10,649 units of over 50 hp were registered between January and August, an increase of [...]]]> British farmers are estimated to have spent approaching £1 billion on farm equipment in the first 6 months of the year, an increase of nearly 10% on a year earlier.

Tractors are generally the best indicator of activity and 10,649 units of over 50 hp were registered between January and August, an increase of 3% on the previous year. The average power has continued to move up, to 142hp this year.

The next major sub-sector of the market is the combine harvester; sales have been very strong in this seasonal year and will approach 1,000 units which would be the second highest level in the last decade. This has been driven by higher grain prices and a feature has been that smaller machines have been in demand.

Other machine types to have seen good demand include telescopic loaders and big balers whilst much cultivation and soil preparation equipment has also seen healthy increases in the number of units delivered to dealers. For some particular products there have been delays in delivery as the recovery in sales in much of Continental Europe has led to pressure on factories.

In terms of the value of sales, prices have risen a little under the pressure of rising commodity and energy costs so tractors are presently showing a small increase whilst combine harvesters are similar to last year’s level (much of the additional demand came in autumn of 2010). For the remaining types of machinery AEA surveys suggest that the value of sales so far has been more than 10% above a year earlier.

The current estimates are that the area sown to wheat was slightly higher and the latest ADAS view is that average yields are only slightly down on the year. So total wheat production may even approach the 14.8mt level, which looked extremely unlikely during the drought months. Prices received will have been significantly higher with many getting at least 30% more than last season.

The crop of the year has been Oilseed Rape which saw an increase in sown area of nearly 10% plus a yield improvement and buoyant prices.

Even with the substantial input cost increases many farmers will have had a strong year.

We believe that the immediate outlook for demand for machinery for the rest of 2011 is therefore reasonably favourable and a strong level of enquiries has been reported at the main trade shows.

Tractors are generally the best indicator of activity and 7,996 units of over 50 hp were registered between January and June, an increase of 2.9% on [...]]]> British farmers are estimated to have spent approaching £1 billion on farm equipment in the first 6 months of the year, an increase of nearly 10% on a year earlier.

Tractors are generally the best indicator of activity and 7,996 units of over 50 hp were registered between January and June, an increase of 2.9% on the previous year. The average power has continued to move up, to 142hp this year.

The next major sub-sector of the market is the combine harvester; sales have been very strong in this seasonal year and may exceed 1,000 units which would be the second highest level in the last decade. This has been driven by higher grain prices and a feature has been that smaller machines have been in demand. Another major sector in terms of machine value is the self-propelled forage harvester, sales of which are unlikely to reach last year’s record levels but have picked up recently and are expected to exceed 150 units.

Other machine types to have seen good demand include telescopic loaders and big balers whilst much cultivation and soil preparation equipment has also seen healthy increases in the number of units delivered to dealers. Some grassland equipment has also seen improvements, although round balers and set-aside mowers have been weaker. For some particular products there have been delays in delivery as the recovery in sales in much of Continental Europe has led to pressure on factories.

In terms of the value of sales, prices have risen a little under the pressure of rising commodity and energy costs so tractors are presently showing a small increase whilst combine harvesters are similar to last year’s level (much of the additional demand came in autumn of 2010). For the remaining types of machinery AEA surveys suggest that the value of sales in the first half has been more than 10% above a year earlier.

Farming conditions have once again been rather mixed; on the one hand product prices have been strong but then so have offsetting cost increases. Additionally the weather has been unhelpful for many with a strong drought through the late spring translating into lower crop yields; however parts of the country did receive sufficient rain and can expect near-normal yields. It is a year when some farmers will have prospered, especially if they have been lucky with the weather and skilled enough to buy inputs and sell outputs at favourable prices. Others will not have been so fortunate. In aggregate farming will have had a modestly successful year and there is optimism for the future of an industry that must feed a growing world population.

The immediate outlook for demand for machinery for the rest of 2011 is therefore reasonably favourable and a strong level of enquiries has been reported at the main trade shows.

In summary, under this agreeement NFU Mutual will:-