INSIDE AGRI-TURF

Chris Biddle discusses the current state of the agri-turf industry with Les Malin, the current President of the Agricultural Engineers Association. Les heads up the UK arm of a French company, Etesia, selling top of the range turf maintenance machinery and has been the lone person in the office for past months where has been fielding enquiries mainly from machine owners.

The wide ranging discussion covers the future prospects for the ag and turfcare industry in the UK, the future of shows and exhibitions - and inevitably Brexit which Les believes could have as disruptive impact in the coming months as Covid-19 has had on the past few months

Agricultural Engineers Association

Etesia UK

The UK's first commercially available fully electric tractor was featured on a recent BBC1 Countryfile programme. In this episode, Chris Biddle features an audio extract of a video on the Farmtrac tractor made by Robert Llewellyn of the Fully Charged Show in conversation with Adam Henson.

Chris also talks to Steven Haynes, sales manager of Reesink UK, the UK distributor of Farmtrac about the early response to the TV coverage.

To become widely used, electric tractor need to be scaled up, so Chris looks at other sectors and updates on the progress made by tractor manufacturers.

The Fully Charged Show

Video made by Robert Llewellyn

In this episode I speak to Ken Brewster, UK Sales and Marketing Director for Husqvarna Group and Lincolnshire garden machinery dealer, Gavin Bird of Green Stripe Garden Machinery about the increasing popularity of robotic mowers.

We hear about 'Bob', a robotic mower installed by Gavin at his premises in 2006, and which has so far clocked up almost 35,000 hours of operation over 14 years with minimal maintenance costs.

Many robotic mowers are sold in 'clusters' as the most effective sales people are existing owners who tell their neighbours and friends about the benefits of 'hand-free' mowing.

The mowers also appeal to those who find mowing the lawn a chore, and who discover that the purchase price is often much cheaper than installing ecologically damaging synthetic 'grass'.

Claimed as a world's first, a team based at Harper Adams University, have successfully completed the cycle of cultivating, planting and harvesting crops remotely, without human intervention in the field - using the harvested crops to produce gin and pizzas.

Chris Biddle is in conversation with one of the team leaders, Kit Franklin of Hands Free Hectare, now expanded to Hands Free Farm about the challenges they faced in the past, and this year when floods and pandemic impacted upon their plans.

Kit is adamant that whilst many robot machines are in development, a great number look like 'sci-fi' blobs' which is why the team adapted tractors and machinery that potential users recognise and trust.

The expanded project, will embrace five fields with all the usual obstacles, trees, fences, gates etc and cover 35 hectares (almost 90 acres)

Hands Free Farm

David Withers rose from working as a demonstrator of turfcare machinery to becoming President of Jacobsen, a global turf machinery brand and based in the United States. Three years after returning to the UK, he is heading his own company distributing the Iseki compact tractor and grass machinery range, and is demonstrating machinery once again through video production as the current pandemic restricts shows and working demonstrations.

He talks to Chris about the advantages of single brand rather than a 'house of brands', of controlling the 'space' in which they operate, of 'happy dealers' and of the cultural differences between doing business in the US and the UK.

Favourite quote is "Good dealers can sell a bad product, yet and bad dealer cannot even sell a good product"

Following the news that Briggs and Stratton, the worlds largest small engine maker had filed for Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Act, Chris Biddle looks back at the roots of their possible problems over years, and the likely way forward

During lock-down, much of the agri-turf machinery industry has been working as normal, thanks to the combined efforts of the industry's two trade associations who were able to provide Government with a collective industry voice on behalf of its members.

In this podcast, Chris Biddle talks to Ruth Bailey, CEO and Director General of the Agricultural Engineers Association (AEA) representing manufacturers and suppliers and Keith Christian, Director of the British Agricultural and Garden Machinery Association (BAGMA) about their role in maintaining services to farmers, sportsgrounds and homeowners when much of the rest of industry was shut down.

In a wide ranging discussion they covered:

• (08:24) The role of trade associations
• (15:25) Membership benefits
• (20:18) The current 'mood music' in the industry
• (27:00) Future supplies of machines and parts
• (32:00) Shows and exhibitions

What is Agri-Turf?