FARM EXPO 2022 REVIEW > Robin Back (centre) with Kieran Hughes and Shane McKenna from McHale
> The busy BeBa Energy UK stand
> Donna and Gary Fielding on the Pressure Clean stand
IMPRESSIVE LINE-UP
OF MACHINERY 10
Lockdown seemed a lifetime away as farmers, landowners, professional advisers and the merely interested visited the Kent Showground for Farm Expo 2022. Wet weather the previous day left the showground itself boggy, which gave visitors to the outside stands plenty of mud to wade through, but the day itself was dry and saw crowds of potential customers chatting to friends old and new, clearly enjoying being “allowed out” once more. There was the usual line up of machinery dealers, equipment suppliers and professional advisers ranging from banks to land agents and solicitors. The outside display area featured impressive equipment line-ups from the likes of Bell Agricultural, Ernest Doe Power, Haynes Agricultural, Agwood and Lister Wilder, rubbing shoulders with media sponsor South East Farmer. Dryer and warmer were the inside exhibitors, who quite literally ran from A – represented by A1 Installations – through to Z for Zantra and
Zedlock. Amongst the well-known names talking to potential clients about the prospects for 2022 were Agrovista UK, Alvan Blanch, Batcheller Monkhouse, Graham Heath Construction, Kirkland, NatWest and Southern Farmers. While most exhibitors were pleased with the number of visitors to the show, Pressure Clean’s Gary and Donna Fielding were particularly impressed with the quality, having picked up a number of solid leads for their Nilfisk, MAC and Karcher ranges during the day. Another exhibitor who enjoyed a busy show was solar specialist Shaun Beattie, of BeBa Energy UK, who said visitors to the stand had been “two deep” for much of the morning, discussing solar PV installations and rapidly advancing battery technology. At the NFU Mutual stand, the team was kept busy both by general enquiries and by those who wanted advice on how to deal with storm damage following the strong winds that had ripped through the region
APRIL 2022 | WWW.SOUTHEASTFARMER.NET
just days earlier. The Bell Agricultural stand featured an impressive line-up of machinery from McHale, reflecting a partnership that is now celebrating its fifth anniversary. Bell Agricultural’s Robin Back said the franchise had proved highly successful not just because of the quality of the McHale products and the manufacturer’s customer support but because the ethos of the business matched his own.
