Firstly today, it is always a sad moment when we report on a dealership closing its doors for the final time.

Thoughts turn to the staff members who will have lost their jobs - and then also to the business owners who would have tried everything to keep the company profitable and afloat. 

But it's something we do again today, with the news regarding Suffolk Agri. As ever we hope that the team members made redundant aren't lost to the industry, finding placements elsewhere in the sector as soon as possible. Retention is hard enough as it is, without experienced people being forced out. We wish them all the best.

Potentially concerning news also from the AEA, who say that it has been a "relatively slow start to the year" for registrations of agricultural tractors. Their agricultural economist, Stephen Howarth, tells us that the number of registrations for the first two months is actually the lowest since 2001. He does caveat this though, by pointing out that January and February are traditionally quiet months for the tractor market. He says we should have a better picture once figures for March, typically the peak month each year, are available. Fingers crossed for some brighter news next month.

I did speak to our ag machinery editor, Martin Rickatson, about what he was hearing regarding the ag sector. He suggested there was some uncertainty out there surrounding prospects for the year ahead, with a natural sales drop-off after a couple of decent years compounded by uncertainties over government ag policy, plus stubbornly high farm input costs, a fallback in commodity prices and, perhaps most significantly for dealers, big jumps in the cost of kit. And following on from problems a year or two ago getting hold of machines from manufacturers because of component supply issues, Martin said that while it appears these have now been largely overcome, makers are now putting pressure on dealers to take into stock the backed-up production coming through.

It's a situation that needs monitoring as we progress through the year of course. Please though, always feel free to comment on here or drop us a line if you have thoughts you'd like to share.

Robotics

Talking of sharing your thoughts, we're looking for your opinions today on a subject that seems to have boosted prospects for some dealers these past few years - robotic mowers. We're running a short survey which we'd greatly appreciate your feedback on.

I checked back and the last time we asked for our dealer readers' thoughts on the robotic mowing market was all the way back in 2019 - in the before-times, pre all that oddness kicking off! It will therefore be fascinating to see just how - if at all - attitudes have changed in that time.

I may be wrong, but I feel that robot mowers are now a widely accepted and fairly normal part of grass machinery dealers' portfolios. Looking back at comments received five years ago though, from dealers discussing how they felt the technology related to their businesses, and there was a surprising degree of negativity.

Some quotes included:

• "I feel it’s generally over-hyped in a similar way to battery products which are also being pushed hard by manufacturers currently."
• "Have tried pushing on certain customer type but no interest shown at the moment."
• "Very few enquiries and so far and most of these have not gone anywhere."
• And the succinct, "Expensive gimmick".

There were of course, plenty of comments in favour of the technology too. Many dealers were telling us they were "the future". Well, it's kind of the future now, so it'll be interesting to hear if dealers who were sceptical for a variety of reasons in 2019, have been convinced to change their minds.

Certainly every grass machinery manufacturer wants to be in on the game these days. Advancements in technologies mean the tools are a slightly different proposition now as well. With RTK and GPS coming on in leaps and bounds, dealers installing cables in customer gardens, is not what it was.

So have changes like this meant a shift in consumer attitudes? And if consumer attitudes have shifted, does that mean more dealers are also now fully on-board?

We have a few quick questions today, the answers to which it will be interesting to compare to those of five years ago. Moreso perhaps, it's the thoughts of our dealer readers that I am keen to hear. Have your opinions changed; been reinforced; or something in between? Please let us know.

As ever, we'll publish the results and as many of your comments as we can in Service Dealer magazine. Thanks in advance for your help.

TAKE THE SURVEY.