15,000 attend farm machinery show

MORE than 15,000 people are estimated to have attended the three-day Farm Machinery Show, which ended at Punchestown Event Centre in Co Kildare yesterday.

The show, believed to have contributed over €3 million to the local economy, recorded a 10% increase in attendance on the first day compared with 2005.

Continuing increased interest in farm machinery comes against the background of new EU and Government grants for slurry storing and spreading machinery, as part of the Farm Waste Management Scheme.

Farmers are upgrading their systems to reduce smells from spreading slurry, according to show organisers the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA). It also said the end of the sugar beet industry has not dampened enthusiasm for increased mechanisation.

“Farmers have replaced the sugar beet sector with increased tillage crops and this has created demand for combine harvesters.

“The increased use of rape seed oil for bio-diesel production is fuelling this demand as more oilseed rape acres replace the sugar beet crop,” it said.

The FTMTA said demand for tractors is continuing after record sales in 2006.

Farmers at the show ordered new tractors from many of the suppliers.

FTMTA chief executive Michael Moroney said sales are expected to be strong for the full year.

The farm machinery industry has a turnover of over €350m and the sector accounts for some €200m of exports by Irish manufacturers.