Comment – Help with the shopping list
I am apt to reflect with some trepidation regarding what the future holds, but it’s not a bad as I think (at 3am).
So on a rare sunny morning, I’m penning this note with a spring in my step.
Earlier this week, with bated breath I clicked on the DEFRA weblink to find the contents of this year’s first round of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund*. Imagine the thrill of seeing that I can get up to 60% grant funding for a snacker – for the uninitiated, its a wee trailer for the back of the quad/gator (other UTV’s available), ditto a forage mixer wagon, and a cereal weed seed terminator for the back of the combine (although it may take some finagling to fit to the Massey 506 here) , alongside some of the usual suspects of direct drills etc..
Over at the tech end of the grant funding offer, camera guided inter row hoes, robotic silage pusher, robotic drill and guided hoe, real-time inline forage analyser, not to mention the tractor powered electric desiccator for weed and plant control (I can’t wait for the damp and misty dealer training day with that one!).
Whilst these products will all have to be paid for, it’s a shot in the arm for the supply chain to have up to 60% government grant funding available for the above.
Another respite has come with the governments recent back pedal on the company car tax status of double cab pickups.. I don’t know what the towing capacity of a Tesla is, but I’m pretty sure it won’t cope well with a triaxle and a 5 furrow reversible on the back.
Have a good week.
Andy
PS do I really need a real time inline forage analyser for the New Holland 268 Baler?
* If you now can’t sleep, have a look at the full list here:
