Dealer sees ‘exciting road ahead’

IRISH GRASS MACHINERY has been appointed as a new Etesia dealer in the Republic of Ireland.

Founded in 1998 by brothers Tony and Michael Smyth, Irish Grass Machinery distributes a wide range of groundcare equipment.

“We want to work with the best brands and that is how we came to be an Etesia dealer,” Michael Smyth explained.

He is particularly excited by Etesia’s new ET Lander electric utility vehicle. “I first became acquainted with the ET Lander when I went over to Etesia UK’s headquarters. I had a good look and a drive of it, and it certainly is the benchmark for electric utility vehicles. We will be the exclusive dealer of the ET Lander in the Republic of Ireland, so it is a great opportunity.”

He added: “In Ireland, I believe that a lot of people would have heard about the Etesia brand but maybe they haven’t had a chance to see them in action. We’re hoping to put that right and convert a lot of our customers over to Etesia.

“We are very excited about the road ahead with Etesia.”

Robot manufacturer looks for additional dealers

FRENCH MANUFACTURER OF agricultural robots

Naïo Technologies has trained and certified 35 dealers around the world, and the company is looking for additional dealers for its line-up of four robots.

These are Oz (a farming assistant focused on arduous tasks), Orio (a tool-carrier for vegetables and industrial crops), Ted (a mechanical weeder dedicated to vineyards) and Jo (a crawler designed for narrow vineyards and specialty crops).

Flavien Roussel, marketing content manager for Naïo Technologies, says new relationships with dealers begin with a conversation to ensure both parties are a good fit for one another. “There are talks and meetings with the dealers interested in Naïo,” he says.

“We evaluate their sales area and potential. Then, we work together and teach the technical teams how to maintain the robots.”

Contracting prices to rise, says NAAC

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION of Agricultural Contractors (NAAC) has released its latest survey of contracting prices and overall results highlight that price rises are inevitable this spring.

While the UK inflation rate is currently over 10%, the NAAC survey has highlighted more modest increases in contracting rates. While there is no ‘one size fits all’, overall soil preparation costs have increased at just over 4%, with the drilling category going up almost 3.5% since last year. Within individual services, however, due to the nature of surveys, some prices have increased substantially whilst others have barely shifted.

Jill Hewitt, NAAC chief executive, commented: “It is simply not defensible for prices to stand still this year. Farmers should be entering into conversation with their contractor to ensure that price rises allow both parties to run sustainable businesses, whilst moving forward in terms of productivity and technology.”