Comment – Where’s Andy? And the little Englander?
As is often the case, one jumps on a plane for a few days of sun, and then hey presto, the usually dull and cold UK, has a heatwave. Obviously I’m not taking the credit, but as I sit here, at Milan Bergamo airport, sweltering at 35 degrees, I suspect you are reading this, at a similar temperature.
This week’s adventure has seen yours truly at the CIGR EurAgEng 2026 World Ag Engineering Congress in Torino, Italy. I’m a big fan of Italy and all things Italian, in fact there may be a tractor tucked away in the lambing shed which was made in Treviglio.
What made this congress truly special, was that despite the economic headwinds, almost 700 international academics, students and industry representatives chose to come together to present their work on societies big problems. With climate change, tractor fuel systems, waste management and energy high on the agenda it was of the moment.
I know at this point that you may be rolling your eyes at this talk of AI, robotics and autonomy, but there is no getting away from the fact that farm labour is already a headache, and that we have to do more with less. What I really wanted to say was that whilst the congress didn’t give all the answers, it’s exciting to see that the big challenges are being tackled, and we saw, at least. a version of the future. As with all these things time will tell.
One other great pleasure for me is the realisation that it’s easy to look at Blighty and complain incessantly that there isn’t the agricultural engineering, or machinery business which there once was. The business is still there, with factories elsewhere perhaps, and solutions which hadn’t even been dreamed of when Banner Lane closed (for instance). I’m positive for the future as the minds, will and vision are all there, just not perhaps where they were.
I also glanced upon this earlier this week, which makes the point that the UK heatwave of June 26 is not the same as 1976, for those of us old enough to remember, or have elders who remind us!
Have a good week, and I hope it’s a little cooler.
Andy
