USA

AG SERVICE TECHNICIAN RECRUITMENT
US dealer association, Equipment Dealers Association (EDA), through its charitable arm the Educational Dealers Foundation (EDF), has launched its newest workforce development initiative, an educational marketing campaign designed to increase awareness and change perceptions of careers in an agricultural equipment dealership.
The aim is to familiarise parents and educators of middle and early high school students about the advantages of a career as an agricultural equipment technician. It is also releasing a Dealer Media Suite, a comprehensive toolkit of advertising materials that dealers can use absolutely free. With these customisable materials, dealers can place ads in their local media.
More details and watch recruitment film

AUSTRALIA

CONSUMER WATCHDOG TO INVESTIGATE WARRANTY CLAUSES
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has published a discussion paper Agricultural machinery: After-sales markets raising a number of concerns relating to competition and fair trading issues according to Farm Weekly
ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh said "Agricultural machinery costs a lot to purchase and maintain. We are concerned by a number of issues surrounding the sale and servicing of agricultural machinery and want to better understand the extent," he said.
"A number of barriers, including warranty clauses, may be preventing farmers from using an independent business to repair or service their equipment."
Another issue identified in the paper was the fact that the Australian Consumer Law did not currently extend to agricultural machinery valued above $40,000.

CANADA
MANUFACTURER CLOSES RETAIL DEALERSHIP
Canadian farm machinery manufacturer, Morris Industries, has just closed its company owned dealership Morris Sales and Service (MSS) in Manitou. In January, the Saskatoon Star Phoenix reported that the 91 year old maker of bale handling equipment and seeding equipment had been granted creditor protection in December following a change of strategy by a new management company which took over the family business in 2017. Morris Industries, who employ 134 staff, sell their products into the North American, Australian and Eastern European markets. MSS was a major Kubota dealer as well as selling its parent company products.

NEW ZEALAND
LAST NEW ZEALAND MADE LAWNMOWER
Production of the last New Zealand-made lawnmowers will shift offshore, as Steelfort is to cease in-house manufacturing of its Lawnmaster range according to Stuff NZ. The company will no longer manufacture mowers at its Palmerston North facility and will outsource production to Beijing from July. The Lawnmaster brand will remain, but will no longer be New Zealand made. The Chinese manufacturer has been associated with Steelfort for 5-6 years, and Steelfort already imports the company's products.

Steelfort was founded in 1946 by Frank McOviney who arrived in New Zealand from Yugoslavia (Croatia). The steel fabrication company moved into lawnmower production in 1960 having acquired a NZ cylinder mower maker and later added a rotary range. Today the company also distributes major brands such as Countax, MTD, Rover etc. 
Steelfort owner and managing director John McOviney, son of the founder, said the decision came after years of trying to make ends meet and lower the costs associated with manufacturing locally

AFRICA

'UBER' STYLE TRACTOR TRIAL 

Deere & Co is teaming up with the “Uber of tractors” in Africa and anticipating where farmers summon machines with the touch of a button according to Reuters
The company is fitting its tractors with start-up Hello Tractor’s technology, which allows farmers to hail the machines via an app, monitors the vehicles’ movements and transmits usage information such as fuel levels.
Deere is currently testing the technology - a small black box fitted beneath dashboards - on around 400 tractors in Ghana and Kenya.
Jacques Taylor, who heads John Deere’s sub-Saharan Africa business, said that the continent badly needs more machinery to develop its farming industry but most farmers don’t have the scale to justify a large investment.“We would like to see that every farmer has access to mechanization. The gap that we’ve identified is, how do we connect small farmers with tractor owners?”