Show stands out as best

W E HAVE been quite busy recently, but still found time to go to Newark last week for the Lincolnshire Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Association Annual Show.

It is now looked upon as one of the largest, if not the largest farm machinery show in Europe.

It is not surprising the royal show has had to pack up.

Most of us who are involved in agriculture get far more out of LAMMA's special machinery, dairy, beef and sheep events.

What is quite surprising is that the entrance is free.

No-one is trying to sell you anything and it is a really cheap day out.

I always find visiting these shows well worthwhile and there were 600 stands with machines such as potato harvesters, pea viners and tractors the likes of which I had never seen before.

They are the size of an average family house and have an engine to match that of any juggernaut.

It was a quirky little invention by someone who looked like an eccentric gentleman from the north that really took my fancy.

For livestock farmers, and especially those of us who keep sheep, erecting new fences is one of those jobs that takes quite a long time and saps the strength.

There in the middle of a myriad of multi-million pound machines was the simplest of gadgets, mounted onto the rear of a tractor, which unwound and tightened sheep netting and barbed wire.

The inventor was telling me that with the aid of this simple gadget, although it wasn't cheap at £1,500, one man could easily erect half a mile of netting in a day.

One of the major fencing contractors certainly hadn't been slow in recognising this brilliant piece of kit.

They had started to supply reels of five hundred metres for it.

As a hill livestock farmer with the minimum of machines on the farm, I did find it difficult to get my head around both the size and the cost of the modern machines today.

As I sat in one of the trade stands taking afternoon tea with an old friend, he was telling me that he had just shaken hands on the purchase of a new combine with a list price of £180,000, and a 170bhp tractor, taking his spending, before discount, to almost £300,000.

If it was me and I could get my hands on that sort of collateral, it certainly wouldn't have been spent on a combine and a tractor, but three terraced houses.

Still, it was a wonderful day out, we had lots of hospitality and I did take notice of the boss because as I left to go out for the day I could hear the words: "Have a good day and enjoy yourself, but don't get your cheque book out."