TILLING THE SOIL Peeters Landbouwmachines BV manufactures agricultural machinery under the Tulip and Peecon brands. Joseph Altham interviewed Tulip’s export manager, Stijn Tilborghs, together with Peecon’s export manager, Sjors van Deursen, to find out how the company’s machines are helping farmers to produce food more efficiently.
30 Industry Europe
P
eeters Landbouwmachines is divided into two halves. Tulip offers machinery for arable farming, such as harrows, seed drills and fertiliser spreaders. Peecon’s machines are designed for use on grassland and are sold mainly to livestock farmers. Peecon’s main products include feed mixers, slurry tanks and slurry injection systems, but it also sells tipping trailers among others to construction firms. The company was established in 1973 in Achtmaal, in the south of the Netherlands. It has kept the factory in Achtmaal, but in 1999 it moved its headquarters and main production site to the nearby town of Etten-Leur. Both Peecon and Tulip are successful exporters. Around 80 per cent of Tulip’s output goes for export, while Peecon’s machines have proved especially popular in Scandinavia and the United States, where some farms have up to 80,000 cows). Peecon and Tulip share a common goal. The aim is to give the farmer high production quality at a reasonable
price. “Farmers want something simple and strong,” Mr Tilborghs believes. “The machines have to be durable because when the farmers need them they can’t afford to lose any time as a result of a fault.”
Harrows Among Tulip’s most important products are its ranges of power and disc harrows. In agriculture, harrowing is carried out after the harvest to break up the stubble in the fields. Harrowing is also used to achieve green fertilisation between two seasons of wheat. Tulip offers power harrows (the Roterra range) and disc harrows that can be pulled behind a tractor. “Farmers have to use power harrows in soils with heavy clay,” said Mr Tilborghs, “but the trend is to replace power harrows with disc harrows in soils that permit it.” Tulip’s Multidisc range of disc harrows is popular with farmers in many European countries, including Germany, France and
