NO sooner had I suggested last week that in the advancement of farm technology that we could soon see the emergence of a new dealer category, the Drone Dealer, than Steve Halley, md of Cheshire Turf Machinery popped and said, “We’ve sold one”.

A major supplier to Manchester City FC, Steve recently responded to a request from the Premiership high-flyers to include a drone in a quantity of turfcare machinery he was to supply to the club. “I think it was a question of there not being a box to tick for the accounts department, and so it was easier for them bundle up the drone with a consignment of new mowing kit”.

Mind you, CTM made a very entertaining film last year outlining the preparation for the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool that portrayed the layout of the course best by using a drone to film as it flew up and down the fairways. “I do think that we may see more use of drones for a variety of applications at golf and sporting venues as well as for farming,” says Steve.


DIDDUMS. What a delicious word! Hardly used but disparaging comment on those thought to be putting it on. And used recently by a Daily Mail columnist  when comparing the bleats of the extremely well-paid tube drivers asked to man the 24 hour tube service in London, to the plight of the dairy farmers who work round the clock for a diminishing return. Can you imagine them agreeing and coping with a job swap?  Work life balance is not the issue to farmers. Life is work. Seamless. Just listen to the cry from the tube drivers canteen however should they run out of milk for their cuppa. 

YOU can tell its August with airtime to fill before the blockbusters fill the TV schedules. So it was that the One Show staged a lawnmower ‘race’ in the studio’s courtyard this week. The contestants were presenter Alex Jones and Doc Martin’s Martin Clunes (though probably more appropriately known for Men Behaving Badly).  It was all over in less than a minute but the reward for the winner was participation in the World Lawnmower Racing Championship to be held in late September in Sussex.

The winner, Martin Clunes who lives on a farm in Dorset, admitted in an interview in 2009, that he was ‘passionate about cutting grass with his ride-on’ which is a good start, but added that ‘lawnmower racing doesn’t interest me, speed is never the issue, I’m a precision mower”.  So if you were planning to place your money . . .

OH DEAR, here’s the sub-editor’s dream headline for an August edition. DRUGS FOR LAWNMOWER.   A court case in Edinburgh this week heard how a drug dealer provided a bag of Valium as payment to a group of teenagers in exchange for a lawnmower that one of them had advertised for sale. The pills made the boys ill after swallowing them and they spent a night in hospital. The accused, only 17 himself, was found guilty and given an 18 month child protection order.

NOMINATIONS are starting to roll in for the Dealer of the Year Awards this year. In the past, the winners have been based on nominations received from manufacturers and suppliers in support of their dealers (they can nominate up to three in each category) – and that is still the case.  This year, rather than leave it to chance, we are also inviting dealers to nominate themselves, or a fellow dealer they think ought to considered.  So go to the online form and lets have your nominations!