With the ever increasing cases of Covid-19 I was beginning to wonder if I would be able to travel to Oxford to attend the Service Dealer Conference and Awards. Thankfully, I got there without any problem. I was so glad to be there, and delighted to meet so many people with interesting and varied topics. There was a great buzz among the delegates, many hadn’t seen each other for two years (not since the last Service Dealer Conference).

Service Dealer owner, Duncan Murray-Clarke opened the conference with a heart felt welcome to everyone. “Today is unashamedly about you, the dealers. 2020 and 2021 have been extraordinary years” he said. Duncan thanked the sponsors and paid tribute to the dealers for being resilient throughout the pandemic. “We all had to adapt and find new ways of working” he continued.

Duncan Murray-Clarke opens the conference and welcomes the delegates

The first speaker was Ed Gillespie. Ed is a popular futurist speaker and last spoke at the conference in 2018. The theme of his presentation was Smart Working in a Changing World. He cut straight to the chase by saying that climate change is a real problem. “We can’t self isolate from climate change. We need to get into a regenerative state of mind quickly”, he said. When he asked the over 120 delegates for a show of hands by those who owned their own electric vehicles, only a handful raised their arms. He was quite surprised with that. Ed certainly got everyone talking about what he had to say.

Two breakout sessions then followed where the delegates were split into two working groups. Those that attended the first group in the morning would get the opportunity of sitting in on the other in the afternoon. Plenty of discussions and brainstorming took place. Social media marketing expert Teresa Heath-Wareing took the first group, while Ben Scott-Robinson of the Small Robot Company took the second group. Ben stepped in at short notice, as his colleague, Sam Watson-Jones, ironically tested positive for Covid-19 the day before. These breakout sessions were very interactive, and it was great to see the delegates engaged in conversation.

The breakout sessions allowed delegates to get involved in discussions and brainstorming

After lunch Teresa Heath-Wareing was first on the podium. Her talk was about using social media, like Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok, as an aid to selling products. She said that one must be more creative and, perhaps, even funny, when posting information online. “Your customers don’t just want to hear about your products. Humans buy from humans so show them that you understand them. If you can, show them that you know what's going on in their world”, she said. She gave perfect examples of businesses making humerous videos and posting them on YouTube. As a result they got plenty of viewers and followers which gave a great profile to their business, leading to increased sales. 

The afternoon breakout sessions followed after Teresa’s presentation, after which Ben Scott-Robinson took to the stage. His presentation, New Technology Will Empower You, Not Replace You, gave a very interesting insight on how the development of new technology will change the way of farming in the future. Aimed more at the end user than the dealer, Ben showed how lightweight robots could be part of farming, reducing the need for pesticides and even large heavy tractors. He showed an example of how fields could be scanned for weeds, prior to sowing, using a robot. The data collected is then passed to another robot where it would electrocute the weeds, allowing the field to be sown. Ben said that this eliminates the need to plough and harrow the field, saving fuel, reducing soil compaction and so benefiting the environment. The same procedure can be repeated during the life of the crop. “Our vision," he said, "is that per-plant farming will be the dominant farming system in the next 20 years."

It’s all in the future. Ben Scott-Robinson gave a presentation on robotic farming

The final session of the conference involved a round table discussion, which was hosted by Ed Gillespie. He was joined on stage by Duncan Murray-Clarke, Geoff Thompson of Farol’s Machinery, Teresa Heath-Wareing, and Graham Parker of Ernest Doe Machinery. The theme of the discussion was Riding the ‘hybrid’ work-horse – wrangling with the pros and cons of new ways of working. This turned out to be a lively and entertaining discussion

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The round table panellists from left: Duncan Murray-Clarke, Geoff Thompson, Teresa Heath-Wareing, Graham Parker and Ed Gillespie

After the conference, attention was focused on the Awards, which took place that night. Eight awards were announced with the Overall Dealer of the Year awarded to Hayes Machinery of South Moulton, Devon. I was delighted to see Barrow Valley Spares, from Athy in County Kildare, being nominated for the Best New Initiative Award with their QR code system on machines.

It was a very successful conference, an event which would not be possible without the support of all the sponsors and the behind the scenes work from the staff within Service Dealer. They did an amazing job. I’m already looking forward to next year’s event.

Among the eight awards on offer at the Service Dealer Conference and Awards was the Best New Initiative Award. Brothers Alan and Declan Maher of Barrow Valley Spares (BVS) were nominated for this category award with their QR code system for machines. 

Alan and Declan Maher at the Service Dealer Conference and Awards

Formed in 1996 in a small shed beside their family home the company focused on serving the local community. This tradition is still at the heart of their business values today. Through the introduction of their online shop they can now reach further across Ireland.
 
Today the business is still a family run company. Alan and Declan together moved the business to its new location on Kilkenny Road in Athy whereby they expanded their customer base by offering a large retail store dedicated to the supply of Farm and Garden products.

In late 2017 BVS actively sought out large scale supplier’s with the goal of opening a large scale farm and garden parts distribution centre in Athy. That goal was realised through a chance encounter with Kramp, who at the time had only begun to look to Ireland for its next phase of expansion.
 
Almost two years exactly to the day from that meeting, in November 2019, they opened their doors as Ireland’s only Powered by Kramp retail store but it wasn’t all smooth running in the beginning. “When we opened our store in November 2019 things were going along nicely but then Covid-19 struck and we had to close our shop”, said BVS director Alan Maher. “Talk about bad timing. As you can imagine, after having just expanded your business the last thing you’d want to hear is that you have to close up shop. It’s hard to explain how huge a disappointment that was. However we knew we were protecting our customers and we were lucky that we were still able to take orders on the phone and online."

The BVS Powered by Kramp retail store in Athy 

But the two brothers noticed that some of their customers, especially the older farmers, were struggling with purchasing goods online. Those customers would recoil at the thought of going onto a computer to order parts. Instead they would phone BVS describing what they wanted from an old and sometimes faded parts manual. “This was getting very frustrating for us and the customer because we weren’t sure if they were describing the part they wanted correctly” said Alan.

The brothers came up with the idea of creating a unique QR code for a particular machine. When completed, all the customer had to do was scan the code on the machine with his or her phone and the parts for that machine would appear on their screen. “Creating the QR code was tedious at first as we had to manually input all the parts associated with that machine. However once we had it done, it was set up forever and soon we began doing this for all the machines our customers had, whether it is a garden lawnmower, slurry tanker or a farm tractor. We got a lot of support from our supplier, Kramp, particularly from Chris Cashman, Kramp’s account manager for Ireland”. said Alan. 

The system works on the principal that the customer is given a unique sticker with the QR code on it, which they place on their machine. The customer can scan the QR code with their phone whenever they need to order parts. 

A year later, BVS now have hundreds of their unique QR code’s being tested across Ireland. This unique system was recognised by Service Dealer by nominating them for the Best New Initiative Award.

Service Dealer is proud to announce that this week we have presented a cheque for £3428.50 to Farms For City Children.

Service Dealer's Jenni Green (left) presented the cheque to Lisa Long, regional corporate fundraising manager of Farms For City Children this week

The money was raised for the charity that enables children from disadvantaged communities to experience life on a farm in the heart of the British countryside, at the Service Dealer Awards dinner last Thursday (November 25th).

The money was raised through a raffle that was won by Charlie Turner of dealership Sam Turner and Sons. His prize is a box of treats from the kitchen garden at Farms for City Children’s Devon farm. These winter vegetables, fruits and herbs have been grown by visiting children as they learn about sowing, growing, harvesting and cooking with fresh produce. The prize will also include a bottle of Bollinger, a half dozen free range eggs, and a set of eleven books written and signed by the charity’s founder and beloved children’s author Sir Michael Morpurgo.

Service Dealer owner Duncan Murray-Clarke said, "Raising almost £3,500 for such a worthwhile charity is awesome! I'd like to thank everyone who contributed so generously at our Awards dinner - and congratulations to Charlie of course!"

Farms For City Children say that many of the children who visit the farms have never left their city or experienced life on a working farm. Growing such beautiful vegetables helps them to grow confidence and, alongside the other activities they enjoy at the farm, broaden their horizons too.

Kubota Corporation have now announced that they will acquire, through Kubota Canada Ltd, all shares of AgJunction Inc, making AgJunction a company of the Kubota Group.

AgJunction is specialist in advanced guidance and auto-steering, developing and selling hardware and software required for automated machine control applications. Primarily, this has been for agricultural and construction machines in North America. 

AgJunction has numerous patents related to automatic operation control systems and says it has particular strengths in technologies for automated machine control and path planning. By making AgJunction a company of the Kubota Group, Kubota say they aim to strengthen its development structure for technologies related to connectivity, data, automation and autonomy. 

Through this acquisition, Kubota say they will combine AgJunction’s technologies with their products, to speed up the development of automated technologies aimed at North American markets.

In a statement the company said, "Kubota has formulated its long-term vision ‘GMB2030’ and has been carrying forward smart farming initiatives with the aim of providing solutions that improve productivity and food security. Agricultural machine automation is one of the key pillars of these initiatives."

New Holland Agriculture hosted the Advanced Propulsion Centre Showcase event at its manufacturing plant in Basildon, UK recently.

It marked the completion of the Low Carbon Tractor Project (LOCT), which received funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) through the R&D Automotive Transformation Fund with the aim of revolutionising farming industry by developing low carbon tractor technology that utilises bio-methane, harnessing farm waste to reduce the sector’s CO2 emissions. 

During the event, the project leaders from APC, New Holland and its project partners Zircotec and Eminox, gave an overview of their involvement and the future opportunities and plans for this technology. Guests at the event included representatives from the National Farmers Union, the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs, the Department for International Trade, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Innovate UK, and the International Fugitive Emissions Abatement Association. 

The LOCT project is the culmination of New Holland’s work in the development of methane technology for agricultural equipment, which started with a first prototype tractor presented in 2013. With this project, over the last 4 years the brand has completed the development of the first production ready methane-powered tractor in the world. The New Holland Methane Power Tractor started serial production at the Basildon plant in June 2021.

Sean Lennon, New Holland vice president europe, said, “As part of our Clean Energy Leader strategy, we have been pursuing various lines of investigation in alternative fuels for agricultural equipment, and we believe that ultimately the solution for agriculture will take many forms. Today we are proud to be ready to launch to the market the first methane-powered tractor in the world, and this has been possible with the valuable support of the APC, which has helped us on our way to this achievement. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their role in making this happen. We see great potential for this technology as a solution that brings farmers environmental and financial benefits, while contributing to reducing agriculture’s carbon footprint.”

During the event, New Holland also presented its next step in achieving its vision of enabling farmers to become energy independent. It has partnered with UK company Bennamann to deliver an Energy Independent Farm total solution which captures the fugitive methane released by animal slurry to produce Bio-methane and use it as fuel to generate electricity, and power vehicles like the Methane Power Tractor. This solution has a two-fold impact in reducing the farm’s carbon footprint: it prevents the release of fugitive methane from the farm’s slurry lagoon into the atmosphere and provides a clean fuel that reduces the tractor’s emissions compared to Diesel.

“We believe that this ‘total solution’ has very strong business and sustainability impacts for the Dairy and Livestock farmers, with the potential to provide both an additional income stream for the farm business and a significant reduction in its CO2 footprint, which should make a great contribution to the net-zero ambitions of agriculture,” concluded Dr. Chris Mann, Bennaman chairman and chief technical officer.

Stanley Black & Decker announced this week that it has successfully completed the acquisition of two outdoor power equipment companies.

The moves include purchasing the remaining 80 percent ownership stake in MTD Holdings Inc and the acquisition of Excel Industries. These transactions, say Stanley Black & Decker, means they have positioned themselves as the " . .fastest growing provider of cordless electric outdoor power equipment." 

Cub Cadet is part of the MTD family of brands

Stanley Black & Decker's CEO, James M. Loree said, "The combination of these two high-quality, complementary businesses with our existing outdoor business creates a powerful growth engine with approximately $4 billion in annual revenue across the $25 billion-plus outdoor power equipment industry.

"These transactions will be accretive to our 2022 earnings and have the potential of further margin expansion as we integrate these great businesses. Combined, this is a platform well positioned for growth and to lead the electrification of outdoor products with a strong portfolio of iconic brands, industry-leading innovation and extensive engineering and manufacturing capabilities. In addition, the acquisitions add deep customer relationships in retail and more than 2,500 independent equipment dealer outlets serving the professional category.  

"We welcome the 8,100 associates from MTD and Excel to Stanley Black & Decker and look forward to a seamless integration process." 

The purchase price for the two transactions totaled $1.9 billion inclusive of standard purchase price adjustments. 

AGCO/Fendt has announced the relocation of the production and development of the Fendt loading wagons within Germany from the Waldstetten site to the Wolfenbüttel production site.

The company says over the long term, their offering in forage technology for professional farmers and contractors will be expanded.

Christoph Gröblinhoff, vice president & managing director of AGCO/Fendt explained the move, saying "The decision to bundle production of the Fendt loading wagons at the Wolfenbüttel site is an entrepreneurial decision to continue to make our machines for green fodder collection more professional. We want to ensure outstanding quality of the Fendt Tigos in design and workmanship over the long term.

“In the coming years we will invest in the development of forage technology as well as in the production of the Fendt products. Our location in Wolfenbüttel is perfect in size and structure for further expansion of the production capacities. In the future, we expect even stronger synergies that will arise through the collaboration of the development specialists for balers and loading wagons.”