Discs, drills and sprayers were what most farmers were enquiring about at Lemken’s tillage demo day, held in association with Leinster Farm Machines, last week (Thursday, October 12).
The company’s new ISOBUS-controlled plough also proved to be a headline attraction, but maybe not a realistic proposition for all of those in attendance at Duleek, Co. Meath.
Ronan Marmion, Leinster Farm Machines, was encouraged by the event; he told AgriLand that he expects sales to increase as the approval of tillage TAMS (Targeted Agricultural Moderniastion Scheme) applications begins.
TAMS is definitely helping. We’ve put together a lot of quotes for TAMS. Uptake has been quite slow so far.
“It’s really only in the last few days that people have got letters in the post saying that their grants have been approved. I’d imagine in the next few weeks that those quotes will turn into sales. We have a good few quotes gone out for sprayers – both trailed and mounted – with section control.
For example, we actually have one farmer who has received grant approval; we now have the machine in stock for him. It’s a 4,000L Lemken Vega with individual nozzle control. That sprayer was on display at the demo day. It’s controlled completely by GPS.
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“It was a very focused event, so the machines that were there were quite specific to anyone that wanted one. We had a couple of enquiries about the Rubin 12, which of course is a deep-disc machine that is designed to work at deeper depths than the Rubin 9.
“We displayed – what would be a very popular machine for us – the 3m Solitair 9. It is a high-spec machine. We also ran two ploughs – a Juwel 7 and a TCP. The TCP is an ISOBUS-controlled plough; it’s fully electronic.
The ISOBUS-controlled plough was more of a novelty for the day but I suppose when people see it work they open their eyes to what can be done, without the hassle of having to get out with spanners or anything else. Everything is controlled from the cab.
“We certainly had a good few enquiries on the day. A lot of people who came had something in mind to look at; be it a 3m Rubin or a drill. They certainly had questions to ask about a specific machine. We were happy with that.”
