Essential Farm Machinery - November 2022

Exhibitors all geared up for Midlands Machinery Show

Thousands of visitors are expected to attend this month’s Midlands Machinery Show – keen to see the latest innovations in farm technology for the first time.

The autumn showcase event gives farmers and contractors the opportunity to view the latest machines. It takes place on 1617 November at the Newark Showground, Nottinghamshire Organisers say exhibits will include some of the newest, most advanced machinery and equipment on the market – including the latest tractor models, robotic machinery, loaders, telehandlers, and mowers.

Full range

Agco dealers Chandlers will be bringing a large selection of the latest Massey Ferguson machines. The team will also have a full range of Fendt and Valtra tractors, including a number of new models.

Telehandlers and loaders will also be on view, joined by the innovative fully automated FarmDroid FD20 -– a lightweight six-to-eight row drill and weeder which runs entirely off solar power to reduce labour and crop establishment costs.

“The farming industry is changing towards machinery that is high tech and often robotic to reduce labour and costs,” says Chandlers managing director Gavin Pell. “We are excited to be able to offer the new Farm-

Droid to our customers.”

Returning exhibitor Setchfields, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, will

be exhibiting Kioti tractors, mowers, and equipment. The Lincolnshire-based firm will also be joined by JCB loaders.

“The Midlands Machinery Show is a good place to catch up with new and existing contacts,” says chief operating officer Hannah Setchfield, who joined the family business last year.

“The farming community is continually evolving, and through our parts, service and machinery offering we are well equipped to meet the demands of the modern farming business.”

Event organiser Elizabeth Halsall says: “Last year 93% of visitors were satisfied with the exhibitors’ offering, and with advance bookings already up on previous years, it promises to be a fantastic event for all involved.”

For details, visit www. midlandsmachineryshow.com

Welcome to Essential Farm Machinery

Anglia Machinery has a new name – Essential Farm Machinery – and is increasing its ‘reach’. For more than a decade it has been essential reading for farmers in the eastern region, mailed monthly with Anglia Farmer. From this issue it will also be mailed with Midland Farmer.

Essential Farm Machinery is distributed to farms in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire.

To make sure you keep in touch with your news and events, please email our editor, Johann Tasker, at johann@ruralcity.co.uk.

And to talk about how you can reach our unique readership with Essential Farm Machinery , contact Danny Lewis on 01502 725862.

Oliver Landpower expands with dealership aquisition

JCB dealer Oliver Landpower has com pleted its acquisition of neighbouring machinery dealership LQG Agri – en suring continued support for JCB customers and paving the way for a period of expansion and growth.

The deal expands the company’s territo ry westwards into Warwickshire and marks a significant investment in the JCB Agricul ture franchise. It also adds a fourth branch to Oliver Landpower’s sales, parts and ser vice network.

The dedicated JCB location at Upper Quin ton – now operating as Oliver Landpower Stratford – join branches at Tingewick, Buck inghamshire; Luton, Bedfordshire; and Kings Langley, Hertfordshire.

Continued support

Oliver Landpower managing director Charlie Glenister said: “We’re delighted to have suc cessfully completed the acquisition of this longestablished and successful dealership, which expands our business and ensures continued support for JCB customers.”

All LQG Agri employees have transferred to Oliver Landpower. Mr Glenister said this mean’t customers will find the same familiar faces at the branch.

JCB Agriculture managing director John Smith said: “The proposed agreement between LQG Agri owners the Lockwood family and Ol iver Landpower has been completed quickly,

ensuring a smooth and seamless transition with continued customer service and support.

“We thank Geoff Lockwood and his team for many years of support to JCB customers and wish him a very happy retirement. Oliver Landpower’s considerable scale and JCB ex perience, product knowledge and renowned customer service will further strengthen the existing team at Upper Quinton.”

Oliver Landpower is part of the Oliver group of companies, one of the largest ma chinery dealer operations in southern Eng land. The acquisition brings a significant ex pansion in terms of both territory and sales potential for Fastrac, Loadall and other JCB brands.

Sales director Adrian Hewis said: “The response from customers to the latest JCB products, especially the new Fastrac iCON 4000 and 8000 series tractors, has been very good, and they have come at just the right time to support our expansion.”

JCB was a hugely important and success ful franchise, said Mr Hewis. It was a delight to add a territory that extends from Nunea ton south to Evesham and then across to the existing JCB territory served by the firm’s Tingewick branch.

Having extended westwards with the Stratford branch, Oliver Landpower oper ations will expand eastwards when it takes over JCB’s Essex territory at the beginning of 2023 from a site in Colchester.

Top Krone Award for Lincolnshire dealers

Lincolnshire based JPM Agricultural has won the Krone New Dealer of the Year Award after becoming one of the top ten dealers for turnover in their first full year of supplying the company’s products.

Krone UK managing director Marcus Oli ver said: “JPM rapidly integrated the product range into its portfolio, embracing the BiG X forager and BiG Pack square baler in particu lar. The team has also taken warranty on in house and managed several larges trade ins.”

The Ambassador of the Year Award –presented in memory of Krone employees Rodney Benson and Darren Metcalf who both sadly lost their battles with cancer earlier this year – was given to Tim Adcock from Chelmsford’s Adcock Agri.

Mr Oliver said Mr Adcock had displayed “an infectious can-do attitude which cascades and manifests itself throughout his team and truly works in partnership with Krone, in a flexible but driven manner.”

Free safety course launched for farm youngsters

Lantra has launched a free training course to help ensure the safety of bud ding young farmers and those visiting farms who may not be familiar with the en vironment.

The Child Safety on Farms Course aims to ensure parents are aware of the inherent dangers on farms. The course covers children on the farm and the law, children and trac tors, children and ATVs and children and falls.

It also covers child safety around equip ment, harmful substances and the importance of having a farm safety checklist. On comple tion of the free course participants can down

Oliver Landpower managing director Charlie Glenister (left) with sales director Adrian Hewis

In the hot seat at Machinery Show

Visitors to this year’s Mid lands Machinery Show will get a chance to be in the hot seat – with a range of driv ing experiences on offer.

Diamond Driver Training will be giving visitors a chance to have a go around an HGV course. “This is for anyone who would like to have a go at driving an HGV but wouldn’t normally have the oppor tunity,” says instructor Karl Hunt.

“It is aimed at anyone visiting

Ranger Wildtrak, driven by a pro fessional Ford driver.

The vehicle will be outside the Lady Eastwood Centre and visi tors wishing to book a ride can call at the Woldmarsh stand inside the building or at the 4x4 static vehicle display outside the Stan ley Sheldon Hall, says Phaedra Bryant of Woldmarsh.

Bold exterior

“The Ford Ranger Wildtrak fea

hicles around the 4x4 course, ac companied by one of our team, or opt to be driven by an Ineos pro fessional driver.”

The Ineos has a choice of petrol or diesel engine. Both are threelitre six-cylinder turbo BMWsourced engines linked to an eight-speed automatic gearbox with permanent all-wheel-drive.

Visitors interested in a test drive should contact the Chan dler’s team in advance at Belton or Horncastle depots, or queue up on the day.

“We are delighted to be able to bring back the 4x4 course,” says Midland Machinery Show events manager Elizabeth Hal sall. “It provides a unique oppor tunity for visitors to the Midlands Machinery Show to trial cutting edge vehicles.”

For more information about the show, please visit www. midlandsmachineryshow.com

Horsch adds new working widths to Avatar SD range

Crop establishment spe cialist Horsch is adding 8m, 9m and 10m working widths to its Avatar SD range of direct drills.

The new models feature the same 25cm row spacing and spec ifications of the 12m Avatar 12.25 SD model launched last year, al lowing the Avatar SD to meet a wider set of customer require ments regarding farm or trac tor size.

The Avatar 8.25 SD, Avatar 9.25 SD and Avatar 10.25 SD as well as the Avatar 12.25 SD disc drills offer the popular 25cm row spacing. The 3m to 8m Avatar SD models are available with 16.7cm row spacing, with the 8m avail able in both.

“The 25cm row spacing is prov ing popular with the very success ful 12m model,” says Horsch UK general manager Stephen Bur cham.

Customers are reporting lit tle to no detriment in yield in

The new models offer these bene fits to customers wanting a small er working width.”

The new models feature a ver satile triple tank system with a capacity of 6400 litres. The triple tank offers a 60:10:30 split in ca pacity while a double-tank option with a 60:40 split is also available.

Specifying the MiniDrill al lows up to four components to be applied via the SingleDisc seed coulter, providing huge flexibili ty when drilling and reducing the number of filling stops required.

As an option, trash wheels can be mounted in front of the Singl eDisc seed coulters and remove organic matter, as well as stones and clods, from the row. The set tings can be adjusted infinitely to the soil conditions by means of a hydraulic cylinder.

With high organic matter, the trash wheels significantly reduce the ‘hair pinning’ effect, where the disc coulter could press harvest residues into the seed furrow. This effect can lead to insufficient grain and soil contact.

Power of the past lines up at the Newark Vintage Tractor & Heritage Show

More than 1000 vintage and classic tractors and pieces of farm equip ment will be showcased at the Newark Vintage Tractor & Her itage Show on 5-6 November.

Many of these paved the way for the modern-day machinery. They include a 1950 Ransome Thresh ing Machine no. 61374 threshing drum; and a Massey Harris 55K LAL 140 tractor, which have re cently been restored and reunit ed after 50 years.

Tractor restorers Ben Craig and his father Jim led the resto ration, with help from the Vale of Belvoir Machinery Group. Based at Harby, both men said they had a real personal connection with both machines.

“The tractor has real senti mental value to my father - he re members seeing it as a child, being used by contractors, as he walked to school,” says Ben.

Celebrations

“The Beeby Brothers agricultural contractors, who owned the thresh ing drum originally, weren’t far from where we used to live – so it is great being able to reunite the threshing drum with its original tractor.”

Tractor owner John Hay ward saw the threshing drum by chance at a show, says Ben. “We didn’t know about the existence of the tractor, but he came to a show and told us he had the tractor that went with the threshing drum and

it should be reunited.

“We’re still working on restor ing the cab, but the tractor will be mostly finished in time for the Newark Vintage Tractor & Her itage Show.”

Visitors will be able to see the tractor and drum working togeth er. “We will be driving the thresh ing drum at the show, and we hope to take it around to other shows in the future.”

There are various celebrations taking place at the Show, one of which is Nicholson’s of Newark. Originally established as WN Ni cholson & Sons in 1825, the agri cultural machinery manufactur er was based at Trent Iron Works, Newark.

“Over the years they made

More than 1000 tractors and pieces of farm equipment will be on show

many different types of haymak ing machinery including rakes, swathers and tedders,” says vin tage enthusiast Michael Hart. “They also made fertiliser distribu tors and cultivators, grinding mills and sugar beet hoes.

“In 1912, Nicholson’s intro duced the bulldog stationary en gine, but only two were built. One of those engines – fully preserved – will hopefully be coming to the Show. It is owned by stationary en thusiast Matthew Alcock

Mr Hart worked for JL Malt by agricultural engineers and iron mongers after leaving school in 1958. It was on the opposite side of

the river to Nicholson’s. “As a young lad I was often sent to pick up parts from Nicholson’s. One day I went to pick up a part for a swath turner.

“When I got there the part was still in the works and I could not take it until painting had been fin ished. So, the parts manager Tom Aslin tied a piece of string around it and dipped it in Nicholson’s light blue paint.”

Mr Hart also remembers seeing implements being loaded onto train wagons, with those destined for Ire land fitted with horse shafts rath er than a tractor draw bar. But Ni cholson’s was perhaps best known for its sugar beet implement.

Best-selling hoe

“Nicholson’s made Britain’s best selling sugar beet hoe, the BT08, which could be fitted to a trac tor’s three-point linkage, or front mounted on Nuffield and Allis Chalmers tractors,” he adds.

Another celebration taking place will be for one of the largest stationary engine manufacturers. Ruston & Hornsby was established in September 1918 due to a merg er between Ruston Proctor & Co of Lincoln and Richard Hornsby & Sons of Grantham.

“Both of these companies have histories tracing back into Victori an times and were among the UK’s early stationary engine manufac turers,” says Mike Milestone, chair of the National Vintage Tractor and Engine Club (NVTEC).

But the company didn’t just make engines and is equally fa mous for building a variety of other equipment. “These include threshing machines, tractors, air craft, cars, rail locomotives, boilers, water pumps and gas turbines,” he says.

Following the merger in 1918, existing engines from both com

panies were still offered, and work was undertaken to design new models. “The first engine to be designed and sold by Ruston & Hornsby was the Industrial Par affin (IP) range which was intro duced in 1920

This shared a number of char acteristics with the earlier Rich ard Hornsby Stockport range, but with several modifications. Short ly after the introduction of the IP, a lower cost version aimed at the ag ricultural market was introduced.

Highly desired

This was named the Agricultural Paraffin (AP) range – and both AP

and IP engines are now highly de sired by collectors,” adds Mr Mile stone. The first of its large indus trial engines was the M-type semi diesel engine but most famous was the HR range of horizontal diesel engines.

“These were in production from the 1920s until the late 1960s. It’s testament to the quality of these machines that there are still nu merous examples in service throughout the world.

“Many are still in use in Lin colnshire where they are used to drive water pumps to prevent the low-lying Fenland from flooding. They are also being used to pump water in the Trent Valley too.”

Being able to celebrate these in stitutions of agricultural machin ery is something that really makes the show special and unique, says show organiser Elizabeth Halsall.

“Seeing these machines and equipment steeped in history all in one place is a real treat. The show will be one of the biggest gatherings of vintage tractors, and machinery in the country.”

For full details, please visit newarkvintagetractorshow.com