It’s show season

BAGMA representatives have been visiting dealers at various shows around the country...

Cereals

The UK’s largest arable farming event attracted around 350 exhibitors and 20,000 visitors. It features 60ha of working demonstrations of agricultural equipment, stands, business advice and specialist services covering the entire arable industry. In the new location of Thoresby Estate, Nottinghamshire, it was mostly manufacturers and several dealers.

Technical innovations on show at RHS

THERE WERE SOME exciting innovations on display at this year’s Royal Highland Show. The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS) displayed the 2023 winners of the Technical Innovation Awards.

Lely (UK) Ltd was awarded a gold medal for its upgraded Collector 120. Diverging from traditional manure scrapers, the Collector vacuums manure, resulting in a cleaner floor and maintaining the cleanliness of cows’ hooves. The Collector also sprays water from the front and back of the machine, as it moves through the stable. This results in better manure intake whilst leaving behind a wet floor, giving cattle additional grip, especially when passages can get slippy in drier months.

R Mitchell & Sons was awarded a silver for the Whitriggs Bale

Unroller (pictured).

Designed to aid the feeding of outwintered cattle, the Whitriggs Bale Unroller allows safe unrolling of bales without the use of heavy tractors and machin ery. The Unroller also eliminates poaching and bullying at a ring feeder, ensuring cattle safety. It can carry and unroll 4ft and 5ft bales right to the core and can be used for straw, hay or silage.

The Whitriggs Bale Unroller has proven popular among farmers trying regenerative farming practices as it enables the reduction of inputs, helps increase soil organic matter and spreads dung more evenly.

Water Fuel Engineering also gained a silver for HydroGen (pictured). HydroGen generates a gas mixture of 2:1 hydrogen to oxygen, called oxyhydrogen, which functions as an additive to conventional fuel. This not only enhances the engine performance but reduces emissions by 70-80%. A unique trait of the HydroGen is that it can be installed on both diesel and petrol engines without modi-

Staffordshire County Show

55,000 people attended this busy two-day show. It doesn’t have the largest agricultural area but there was a good spread of dealers, including BAGMA members B&B Tractors, Tallis Amos and Campey Turf Care Systems.

Royal Cornwall

This is still one of the best shows in the UK, just behind The Royal Highland Show. For more than 200 years it has showcased the best in Cornish agriculture. 117,000 visitors, 1,000 trade stands, and a large agricultural area with many BAGMA members. These included Nigel Rafferty Groundcare, Mason Kings, and Cornwall Farm Machinery.

South Of England Show

2023 marked the 55th year that the South of England Show had been held at their showground in Ardingly, West Sussex. Headline attractions included international showjumping, grand livestock parades and a spectacular display by the Bolddog Lings FMX motocross stunt team. The show also featured more than 1,000 livestock entries and it was a particularly good year for sheep with almost 500 entries. A notable addition to this year’s event was the Vintage Agricultural Machinery Ring presented by the South Eastern Vintage Agricultural Club, which proved a huge hit with tractor and steam parades and harvesting and baling demonstrations.

Royal Norfolk Show

With 700 trade stands, more than 3,000 animals, and an estimated 40,000 attendees on each of the two days, this is Norfolk’s biggest food and drink experience. The agricultural area has some of the biggest dealers in the UK: Ben Burgess, Ernest Does, Pecks and TNS, all BAGMA members. They have large stands packed full of equipment and customers.

After visiting these summer shows, Richard Jenkins, BAGMA’s business development manager, commented: “It does feel at some of the biggest shows that the machinery section is being squeezed by food retailers and fun fairs, and as farms get bigger and dealers get bigger it could be difficult for the agricultural and garden machinery sector to maintain the same space at shows. Let’s hope they always have a presence!”

Royal Three Counties

This show, in a beautiful setting under the Malvern Hills, enjoyed record visitor numbers again, with families journeying from across Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire to celebrate the best of the countryside. Mike Pul- lin from P&D and new BAGMA President Pete Heming had stands there. Both reported a steady flow of customers and actual sales on the day – a rarity at shows! There was also a good number of dealers from the local area.