Charleville Show back in business with fine display of machinery
The Charleville Show was a firm fixture in the calendar for many living in Munster and its return was welcomed by all last weekend, even though the sun stayed away for much of the weekend.
Saturday is the day for business and those local dealers who had taken a stand were soon busy with customers considering machinery purchases.
A good year for green machines
Overall the registration figures tell us that new tractor sales are down on last year, however, this has not been the experience of Geary’s Garage of Co. Limerick.
This season has been better for them than last with the sales boom in John Deere tractors continuing still.
Wheeled loaders are a little slower, but there is fierce competition within a much smaller market segment, so this is only to be expected. Farmers don’t appear to be as averse to buying a cheap loader from the east as they would a tractor.
New Case dealer
Samco also reported good sales with around a dozen machines moving across the forecourt this year, according to Sam Shine, despite them only being appointed Case agents last autumn.
The company’s expansion into retail machinery sales appears to be paying off and the newly opened Tralee branch is doing particularly well.
Besides Case tractors, Samco has also taken on Kverneland to sell alongside its own range of implements. Both appear to be doing well with 80% of Samco’s production being exported.
Early ordering pays for Egmont Agri
Charleville show is held little more than a stone’s throw from Egmont Agri Ltd. of Churchtown, Co. Cork, importers of SaMASZ grassland machinery, amongst other brands.
One of those other manufacturers is Metal-Fach which produces a wide range of machines including front-end loaders and cultivation equipment, both of which Egmont carries.
Timmy O’Brien, the owner of Egmont Agri, is looking forward to a busy autumn as he has some harrows now in stock ready for immediate delivery thanks to some forward planning. Not a situation that every importer enjoys.
Clean cubicles for comfortable cows
Not so blessed are those looking to purchase Tuchel cubile cleaners from Anneragri of Clonmel which sells every machine it can bring in from the factory.
On display was a petrol-powered Mini 3 cleaner, but it is the diesel versions that are in strong demand and early ordering is a must if required for the winter.
Company owner, John O’Donnell, fears that he is losing thousands of euro worth of trade through not being able to get the stock to sell, this applies to all the brands he imports and he is not alone in experiencing this frustration.
Loaders from the east
Equally frustrating at Charleville Show was a row of three articulated Kat loaders from Haihong Heavy Industry Co.
These machines had their prices advertised in the windscreen but at the time of our visit no other information was available, not even the dealer’s contact number.
However, the prices appeared very attractive with just €43,000 (incl. VAT) being required to secure a 5.5t model with a load capacity of 2t.
If the reliability is good and service back up is there, then these could be very attractive machines indeed.
