Down on the Farm
Farm thoughts from abroad.
I'M SITTING IN A HOTEL ROOM, with my laptop in front of me, in Hanover in Germany. I'm attending the largest farm machinery show in Europe, probably the world, called Agritecnica. Fifteen hundred companies are represented here from 34 different countries. The biennial show is host to every farm machinery manufacturer and associated company that can claim an agricultural connection.
The first thing that would strike anyone who has not attended before is the sheer size of the event and venue with at least 12 halls the size of Earls Court all full with glistening machines and in addition numerous stands located outside. The whole exhibition area covers over 21 hectares, nearly 52 acres!
Farmers from all over Europe attend this event including quite a substantial number from the UK. The best way to get to it is to buy a nice new and very expensive piece of machinery and wait for the manufacturer to throw in the trip as a bonus. Alas, I was not so lucky this year - aaaahhhhhh (thought we could get into panto mood seeing as this is the December issue...) and I have had to make my own way here. The blessing with this is that I will not have to go through the manufacturer's "factory tour and initiation in to all machinery and products" blurb - hurray (more audience participation...) and can make my own timetable to suit me.
So, I have set my own agenda and plan to have a good general look round and then to go back to a few specialised stands as I am particularly interested on this trip at looking into ways of producing and saving our own energy on the farm, either oil or electricity.
Most of Europe is light years ahead of us whether it is producing fuel from oil seed rape or heating houses with materials such as wood chippings, straw or even waste grain. But while technology surrounds us as a nation our Government, industries, planners etc to not seem eager to invest time and money in exploring these avenues more fully and in some cases even appear to put hurdles in the way of facilitating these sorts of changes.
One hall at the exhibition has a huge number of stands which encourages and sells ways of producing power from cow muck. The muck is processed which produces a gas which drives generators thus producing electricity which is then either used directly on the farm or passed on to the Grid.
Another large and growing interest is in solar energy. It became quickly very apparent that on the Continent it is becoming a matter of course that whenever a new building is constructed, be it a house or cattle shed, the roof is seen as a very good, and as yet on the whole unused, area to generate power from utilising the sun. The range and enthusiasm for these projects is staggering - we have so much catching up to do in our country. The solar panels on display can work independently or in conjunction with furnaces, which can burn everything from wood chippings, straw and even wheat or barley. The poor price we get at the moment for these products makes using them as a fuel resource more and more attractive. All of these initiatives and ideas coupled with new technology seem to me as the only way the farmer can now go.
In Germany the farmer pays a lot more for tractor diesel than we do so every endeavour is being made to look for and develop alternative fuels and at refining current engines and systems to make them more efficient. These efforts range from producing bio diesel from oil seed rape to producing tractor tyres whose pressures automatically adjust on the move thus making the machine and its fuel consumption more efficient.
It is extremely disappointing to witness the very visible and distinct lack of British companies represented here. Apart from JCB there is no wholly owned British company making tractors any more. Whilst there are a lot of tractors made in Basildon (New Holland, formally Ford) and Doncaster (McCormack) these are multi-nationals, and any farmer wanting to buy a combine can only choose from a foreign make.
On our farm the only thoroughbred British tractor we own is the JCB, the only British success story amongst hordes of foreign machinery. In addition the farm sprayer and our trailers are British but all our other major machinery is sourced from European and American companies - large tractors USA, small tractor and combine Germany, ploughs Norway and France, seed drill and some of the cultivation equipment Sweden, fertiliser spreader Denmark and so on.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my three days at the show in Germany, but in my small and comfortable hotel room I reflect on some of the old farming books that I have at home of my father's with all the black and white pictures of machinery when it was all British - what has happened over the years? It's not all down to cheap imports ...
Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year