The National Fruit Show stand space is fully sold out which has delighted show organisers, The Marden Fruit Show Society. With the UK still in an economic downturn and the food industry reporting tight margins, the Society, which held the first Show in 1933 are thrilled with the news.
The Show takes place at the Kent Showground site, Detling in the Kent Pavilion; a 3,000sqm exhibition hall. The space is ideal for the large machinery exhibitors who attend the two-day event in October. There will be a number of new machines being launched for the UK market and one pre-launch debut from Massey Ferguson, which is really exciting news for Top Fruit growers.
Sarah Calcutt, Marden Fruit Show Society Chair, said: “Many of our machinery exhibitors return year on year and view our Show as a vital date in their calendar. Fruit Growers are currently investing heavily in machinery and getting it right is paramount. Growers are able to come to the Show and see like-for-like machinery, talk to sales teams and make an informed decision to the benefit of their businesses.”
NP Seymour (Stand P42) a family business based in Cranbrook, Kent has been attending the National Fruit Show for over 20 years. The Company has always tried to offer competitively priced tractors and are the sole importer and UK Distributor for the Carraro range of narrow tractors.
The new range of Carraro ‘Agricube’ narrow tractors are suitable for orchards and vineyards with a choice of widths; two or four wheel drive and Iveco engines giving between 72 and 100 horsepower.
NP Seymour are a small partnership who have been in business since 1974, owned by Nick and Barbara Seymour and have seven full time members of staff. Nick and Barbara’s daughter Claire has been involved with organising their presence at the National Fruit Show for a number of years. She explained: “We are a specialist business that provide unique solutions for growers. We have the capacity to manufacture custom machinery like the Table-Top Strawberry Sprayer that can be built to spray 4, 5 or 6 rows in one pass.”
NP Seymour are always trying to look for the latest innovations in machinery and are pleased to announce that they bringing their new BMV trimming machines which can be used for both winter and summer pruning of fruit trees to control growth and promote heavier cropping. These machines are great for modern orchard plantings and especially the new fruit wall systems, where it is used in conjunction with the Darwin Blossom Thinner.
The Horsepower (UK) stand (P49) will feature the Valpadana tractor range, which is being re-launched into the fruit sector at the Show this year and follows a decision to fully integrate Valpadena into the ARGO Tractors operation and transfer GB distribution to AgriArgo UK Ltd.
The line-up available in Britain comprises six different families of compact four-wheel drive tractors with a choice of articulated chassis or four-wheel steering creating a total of 24 individual models.
Reversible driving controls are a highlight of the 26hp 2730 hydrostatic drive tractor and the 54hp to 101hp 6600 and 9600 machines. This allows the operator to work the tractor in whichever direction best suits the task and equipment involved. The ability to reduce width to less than 1m on the smaller models is attractive to growers wanting a relatively powerful tractor capable of working between narrow soft fruit rows.
Agwood Ltd (Stand P25), Massey Ferguson’s appointed Kent and East Sussex dealer will be showing a new addition to the well-established MF 3600 series of specialist fruit and vineyard tractors.
Making its first-ever appearance in the UK, Agwood Ltd will display a pre-production version of the new MF 3660, one of three new specialist narrow tractors of 80hp-plus due to be launched formally by Massey Ferguson in November this year.
Rated at 102hp (max), the MF 3660 will be joined at its launch later in the year by the new MF 3650 (94hp max) and the MF 3640 (84hp max), extending to five models the MF 3600 series of special-purpose and utility tractors. Among the noteworthy features of the new MF 3660 is the use of high performance common-rail diesel engines with electronic engine management, new Powershuttle/Speedshift transmissions offering eight clutchless gears.
In addition to a pre-launch version of the new MF 3660 specialist fruit and vineyard tractor, the Agwood stand will feature a new utility front-end loader for Massey Ferguson tractors. Known as the MF 915, the lighter-weight loader is purpose-designed for the MF 3600 series of narrow fruit and specialist tractors as well as other low to medium horsepower Massey Ferguson tractor models.
Haynes Agricultural Ltd (Stand P26) were recently awarded ‘New Holland Dealer of the Year for 2010’ and will be launching a new Financial Product at the National Fruit Show 2011. The Haynes team will be on hand to explain the new ‘Three Year Operating Lease’ which they are offering on the newly launched and award winning New Holland T4040N and T4050F. The financial product will allow growers to fully factor in costs over the lease period with simple monthly payments that includes warranty and service costs. Eric Hysted from the Maidstone Branch said: “This product is something new from Haynes, traditionally customers either pay outright for their machines or enter in to an HP agreement. We believe that offering an all inclusive fixed monthly payment will help with long-term financial planning without the worry of maintenance costs.”
In November 2008 a jury of European agricultural engineering journalists awarded the New Holland Series T4050F the ‘Tractor of the Year 2009’ award. Following a stringent practical assessment alongside five competitors, the T4050F was recognised for its overall power, performance, versatility, comfort and leading innovations to reduce costs.
Haynes Agricultural Ltd has recently started distributing Technoma Sprayers. TECNOMA, is located in the heart of the Champagne production area in Epernay, France and offers a wide range of sprayers for growers. The Company has been making sprayers since 1959 and now employs around 2600 people in 23 countries on five continents.
Their large factory is able to manufacture all the plastic components required to build a sprayer. Haynes will be bringing a sprayer from the Eolis 100-1500-2000L range which has a 1500ltr Polyethylene tank with twin sight gauges, a 150ltr rinse tank with twin rotating tank washing nozzles and a 15ltr hand wash tank. John Davies, the manufacturer’s UK representative, is delighted to be working with Haynes Agricultural Ltd. “Technoma manufacture quality machinery and Haynes are working closely with us to introduce the Technoma range in to the UK market. There seems to be plenty of interest from the Fruit Sector.”
Kent Fruit Services (Stand P19), formally known as Jan Vogelaar, a regular exhibitor at the National Fruit Show will be bringing the new Greefa GeoSortIII grader, which boasts 33% capacity and guaranteed accuracy. The machine can sort eight fruits per second instead of six with precise measurement and guaranteed weighing.
Fruit size is measured using high-resolution CCD infrared cameras (black & white). The size of each fruit is measured a number of times using a special combination of hardware and software. This ensures extremely accurate measurements. The colour of the fruit is determined using special CCD colour cameras. The fruit is sorted using these cameras according to an average value with respect to blush, colour or background colour. Moreover, the use of special filters eliminates the effect of any reflection. The fruit is electronically weighed using an advanced 3-point weighing system.
The GeoSortIII is equipped with the Greefa intelligent Grading Software (iGS). This user-friendly system is based on Windows and offers numerous possibilities of adding external systems. It can, for example, be connected to the Warehouse Management System.
Peter Kelly from Kent Fruit Services will be demonstrating the machine to visitors at the National Fruit Show and is confident that this latest generation of technology will continue to streamline packhouses and ensure quality produce reaches the consumer.
