AEA

Registrations of agricultural tractors (over 50 hp) in the UK in December were up 54.3% year on year at 696 units giving a calendar year total of 14,094 units, 5.6% higher than for 2010.

The AEA has produced three short articles on Tractor Selection, Management and Optimisation giving broad advice. To get the most out of a tractor it is necessary to choose the correct unit in the first place and then to operate it at greatest efficiency.
We also include a short commentary on the contribution of tyres to machine performance but operators should refer to suppliers’ detailed advisory material for a complete guidance.
When tractors and their associated equipment are used efficiently then there can be environmental gains and in particular fuel use can be minimised whilst emissions are reduced. Manufacturers have made great strides to design efficiencies into their product with today’s engines much less thirsty but operators have a part to play and these notes are part of the industry effort in participating in the pan-farming activity of the Greenhouse Gas Action Plan.
Such advisory notes also can assist the operator to perform safely and as such these notes meld with the AEA contribution toward improving farm safety under the Farm Safety Charter.

The Right Tyre Changes Everything (Source: Michelin)

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.

Over 60,000 items of construction and agricultural plant and equipment have now been marked and recorded within the CESAR scheme which provides theft deterrent and assists recovery of marked stolen units.
As a broad statement CESAR marked product is 4 times less likely to be stolen and 6 times more likely to be recovered than unmarked kit.
The scheme has gained momentum in the agricultural world as unfortunately theft has become more common but there are also positive incentives such as lower insurance premiums. Around half of all new tractors supplied are now thought to be marked, either at factory or by dealers and two major manufacturers have expressed their intention to factory fit in the near future at which time a large majority of new tractors supplied on the UK market will be ‘CESAR ed’.
Whilst engine units such as ATVs and tractors are the most stolen agricultural items, it is interesting that producers of some static products are now beginning to join the scheme. There are well over 100 companies already authorised to fit CESAR on the after- market, most of whom are dealers but are now being joined by major suppliers of other security offerings such as tracker products. All such companies have to be approved and the technicians scrutinised, including CRB checks.

Cesar is operated within the scope of the Home Office and the Police which has a specialist unit in place to prevent plant theft – the Plant and Agricultural National Intelligence Unit (PANIU) and a copy of its latest report covering the second quarter of the year can be found here.

See attached Farm Safety Charter

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.

The AEA and NFU Mutual www.nfumutual.co.uk have entered into an Affinity Partnership Agreement initially for one year.

In summary, under this agreeement NFU Mutual will:-

• Become a sponsor of the AEA
• Support Tillage-Live 2011 by exhibiting
• Support the AEA AGM/Conference in 2012
• Offer free meeting facilities at their HQ in Stratford-upon-Avon to AEA members (subject to availability)
• Provide literature promoting the partnership for use by the AEA, at Tillage, at the Conference and for AEA membships packs
• Launch the partnership to NFU Mutual Agency network
• Include details and links to AEA on NFU Mutual website

The AEA will:-

• Promote NFU Mutual to existing and potential AEA members
• Provide members’ details to NFU Mutual so that they can introduce their range of financial products and offer a FREE insurance review
• Include details and links to NFU Mutual on AEA website and in weekly DGs email

For further details contact export@aea.uk.com

Under the UKTI TAP programme (Tradeshow Access Programme) the AEA has been successful in obtaining grant funding for the following events:-

Potato Europe, Belgium, September 2011
Agritechnica, Germany, November 2011
Fruit Logistica, Germany, February 2012 jointly with the Commercial Horticultural Association
Golf Industry Show, USA, February 2012

A participant must be a UK based business or organisation that is either actively investigating export opportunities or is already involved in exporting from the UK.
A participant must be a small to medium sized enterprise.
A participant must be a new exporter or have exported for no more than 10 years (the requirement to be a new exporter for less than 10 years will be waived where the applicant has not attended the previous edition of the event).

For further information and details of grants contact Debbie export@aea.uk.com

Richard Johnson of John Deere was elected as President of the Agricultural Engineers Association for 2011/12 at the Annual General Meeting held in London on 12th April. 

Richard has led the AEA Farm Equipment Council for the last three years and has overseen its resurgence to a well attended and vigorous group.

Studying agricultural engineering at Harper Adams University College Richard became one of the first Work Placement Students to work at John Deere.

A single-company man, Richard started his career  with John Deere as a management trainee and subsequently held a number of key positions. Initially in the UK where he became Business Development Manager, and in Germany where he rose to lead the Parts & Service Marketing group for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Further promotion in 2004 saw Richard returning to the UK in the role of Agricultural Division Sales Manager for the southern half of the UK and in 2006 he succeeded Alec McKee as Managing Director of the UK Branch of John Deere Ltd, the position he holds today.

In 2009 the Institution of Agricultural Engineers awarded Richard the prestigious Michael Dwyer Memorial Prize which acknowledges a mid-career engineer who has made outstanding progress in the agricultural engineering industry.

The AEA held it’s annual AGM, Conference and Luncheon at One Great George Street, London on Tuesday 12th April 2011.

An audience of over 130 listened to presentations from Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s Technology Correspondent; Nick Cunningham - a specialist lawyer on counterfeiting issues; and the results of a project conducted by students from Harper Adams College. 

Our after lunch speaker was Bryn Parry, the co-founder of Help for Heroes together with three soldiers who related their own stories to the audience. 

Copies of the presentations are available on the AEA’s Members Extranet site.