Self-Priming Adaptor Receives EIMA’s Top Innovation Award 

Hypro’s latest pump innovation, the Self Priming Adaptor (SPA) for Centrifugal Pumps has been awarded the Award for Technical Innovation at EIMA 2008. The award is given to innovations that demonstrate improvements capable of ensuring technical progress in agricultural mechanization. The judges are all Italian agricultural machinery experts, drawn from organizations such as the AIIA, Unacoma, the University of Bologna, the Ministry of Agriculture CRA and ENAMA. The SPA offers fast and reliable self-priming for any closed impeller centrifugal pump, making it possible for a single, high performance, low cost centrifugal pump to be used for both tank-filling and spraying. It is a very simple, compact and lightweight device that is easy to fit and requires no ongoing maintenance.

Article Posted Date: 19/11/2008

Tractor registrations exceed 13,000 in 8 months 

Agricultural tractor registrations in August were 1,588, a 1.6% fall against the high figure recorded in the same month of last year, but the year to date for the 8 months stood at 13,039 (up 13.7%).

Article Posted Date: 11/9/2008

Tillage 2008 cancelled 

Following discussions with farm managers at Tillage events in Corby and Duns the decision has been made to cancel both the 2008 Tillage events.

Weather conditions in both areas have been atrocious and the forecast is little better.

Article Posted Date: 8/9/2008 5

Agricultural machinery sees excellent first half of year 

The first half of 2008 has been favourable for sales of agricultural equipment in the UK and in fact the industry has at times struggled to meet demand.
Our best estimate is that British farmers spent just over £1 billion on farm equipment in the first 6 months of the year, some 25% more than they did in the equivalent period of 2007.
The most reliable information relates to tractors and 9,266 units of over 50 hp were registered, an increase of 15.2% on the previous year and the strongest level for over a decade. The average power has moved up quite sharply this year to 134hp.
The other major sub-sector of the market is the combine harvester; these are largely retailed in the autumn but we can say that the market in the harvesting season has been running over 40% above the previous year and again at the highest level for a decade.
For the remaining types of machinery AEA surveys suggest that the value of sales in the first half have been approximately one-third higher than a year earlier.
In terms of the number of units delivered into the distribution system (i.e. to dealers) most machine types were showing strong increases with cultivation and soil preparation plus planting equipment leading the field. The only generic area seeing a decline was equipment specialist to set-aside and of course EU compulsory set-aside was lifted last season and is not expected to be re-instated.

Article Posted Date: 6/8/2008 4

New Chairman of the AEA Outdoor Power Equipment Council 

Gary King of Bosch Lawn and Garden Ltd has been nominated as Chairman of the OPE Council of the Agricultural Engineers Association and chaired his first meeting last week.  He comments "The outdoor power equipment industry is facing some interesting and challenging issues on differing power sources, and conformity standards on for example noise and I hope that we as a representative body can effecively tackle these".

Article Posted Date: 31/7/2008

New Chairman of the AEA Farm Equipment Council 

Richard Johnson of John Deere has been nominated Chairman of the Farm Equipment Council and chaired his first meeting on 16th July 2008.

The Council has recently recruited a number of additional senior representatives of major agricultural equipment companies and all look forward to pursuing industry goals together.  The FEC also hosted on 16th July a seminar addressed by Andersons, the farm consultants, to debate the prospects for UK farming, our customer base.

Richard is Managing Director of John Deere Limited with responsibility for directing the activities of the UK and Ireland branch, including both the agricultural and commercial and consumer equipment (C&CE) divisions.  He has held this position since January 2006 after holding a number of senior positions with the company both in the UK and overseas.

Article Posted Date: 16/7/2008

Industry Charity Golf Day 3rd July 2008 

Another successful golf day.  Congratulations to Briggs & Stratton on winning the team prize.  Thank you to all who supported the event by taking part and donating prizes.

Article Posted Date: 4/7/2008 1

The Princess Royal opens AEA offices 

Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal officially opened the new AEA offices in Hampton, Peterborough on Wednesday 25 June 2008.

A wide selection of equipment from both the agricultural and outdoor power sectors was assembled outside the building to allow inspection by her Royal Highness demonstrating the width of equipment on offer from a major industry

Article Posted Date: 26/6/2008

UKTI grants for overseas shows 

UK Trade & Investment grants are available to eligible companies at the following trade shows:-

• Potato Europe 10-11 September 2008, Aisne, France
• Golf Industry Show 5-7 February 2009, New Orleans, USA
• SIMA 22-26 February 2009, Paris, France

Contact Debbie at the AEA for further information.

Article Posted Date: 23/6/2008

"Iron Harvests of the Field" published by Carnegie Publishing 

A book has recently been published by Carnegie Publishing Ltd entitled "Iron Harvests of the Field" by Peter Dewey covering the making of farm machinery since 1800.  Softback version is £16.99 post free to AEA members and the Limited edition hardback version £27.00 post free to AEA members.  If you are interested please contact Marilyn at Carnegie on 01524 840111 or marilyn@carnegiepublishing.com  Please do not put card details on any email.

Article Posted Date: 23/6/2008

Cereals 2008 

The event as ever attracted a large attendance but AEA staff still found the opportunity to talk with a number of members and prospective members.

Article Posted Date: 13/6/2008

RASE Machinery Awards for AEA members 

Nine silver medals have been conferred through the RASE Machinery Awards scheme this year. Winning products include: the EcoPower tractor from Valtra; the Bio Chopper mixer wagon from Seko, distributed by Harry West (Prees); the Big X self propelled forage harvester from Krone; and the JCB Telemaster TM310S.
The EcoPower concept from Valtra was also granted the Institute of Agricultural Engineers Award for its contribution to sustainable farming.

Article Posted Date: 30/5/2008