Claas Academy opens

FTMTA member firm Claas opened a state-of-the-art training centre recently in support of their UK and Ireland business. The Claas Academy is located at Saxham in Suffolk and will facilitate the training of service personnel and other staff from the Claas dealer network in the UK and Ireland. The official opening of the academy marks the first phase in an overall redevelopment of the Saxham site within which the Claas head office for the UK and Ireland is co-located with its local dealer Manns.

It was interesting to note from some of the comments made during the opening ceremony that many of the same difficulties encountered in Ireland in terms of attracting high-calibre new recruits to a career as agricultural service technicians that exist in Ireland are also encountered in the UK. A career in the modern farm machinery industry can be a rewarding, challenging and interesting one and it is incumbent on the industry to sell itself better as a career option if it wants to attract suitable young people to work within its ranks. To paraphrase one of the speakers at the Claas opening, an industry that is good at marketing its products will have to become significantly better at marketing itself as a career.

Tractor registrations

The latest tractor registration figures from the FTMTA cover the period to the end of September. The September figures, although slightly down on last year, support the view that the market has stabilised and recovered since the weaker performance of earlier in the year. September saw 89 new tractors registered, which was one less than in the same month of 2016 and three more than in September 2015.

A total of 1,624 units have been registered during the first nine months of this year, which is a drop of 8% on last year, with most of the decrease coming in the first quarter of the year.

Telehandler registrations for the month were down slightly at 29 units v 31 in 2016.

While the telehandler figure for the year so far is down by about 4% on last year, at 260 units, this a considerable increase on the 185 units registered during the whole of 2015. Backhoe and wheeled loaders are up considerably for the year to far at 48 and 73 units, which are increases of 33% and 24%, respectively.