This week's AgQuip continued in the spirit of the upwards trend in farm machinery sales of the past financial year, in a good sales year for most companies selling farm machinery and equipment.
The sparkling array of equipment at the vast Gunnedah, NSW, complex demonstrated the remarkable turnaround in industry fortunes.
The event held August 19 -21, now in its 35th year, is one of the biggest on the southern hemisphere's farm machinery field days circuit.
One year ago, the Tractor and Machinery Association said the industry was trying to manage continuous drought induced low demand for both new and used machinery, especially for larger tractors and combine harvesters.
By late last year, the slide in sales was halted, then reversed.
On the back of the increased demand for every power range, including the highest powered machines, the tractor market was boosted, especially, by the sharp upward in sales in the quarter ended June.
Annual sales of tractors over the past five years were 11,534 deliveries a year compared with the previous five years average of 8,182 tractors deliveries per year - an increase of more than 40 per cent.
And this revival was reflected at AgQuip.
Highlights at AgQuip included:
• The head-turning four-wheel-drive 'concept tractor', with its unique rotating cab, making its Australian debut this year at the AgQuip and Henty Field Days.
The importer of the Claas Xerion Trac VC (pictured), Landpower Australia, says it is a true multi-function tractor that can be configured for just about any agricultural or general purpose traction power unit job imaginable.
By rotating the cab through 180 degrees, the Xerion can be converted from a forward-facing tractor into a self-propelled machine suitable for jobs including mowing, spraying, mulching or silage packing, according to Landpower Australia product manager, Steve Reeves.
"The Xerion's ideal for broadacre and row crop farmers as well as hay and silage contractors," he said.
• The Queensland-based Gessner Industries’ organisation proudly displayed its latest planting unit which features a hydraulically-controlled tine assembly.
The company’s sales and marketing manager, Stewart Kings, says the new outfit, which has yet to be given a name, uses hydraulic power to ensure each vertically-adjustable tine exerts even amounts of pressure while the company’s new parallelogram design tracks every rise and fall in undulatinmg country.
• A multi-national machinery company announced at AgQuip an uprated and expanded six-model series of rotary combine harvesters, with their release to coincide with the big Farm Progress Show in the United States.
Pictures and video clips to complement this release will be published along with a report of AgQuip, in The Land, NSW, and in other Rural Press agricultural weeklies, August 28.
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