Alan Davies, our new Engineering Manager
ENGINEERING ADVANCES
Simba is strengthening its engineering department by promoting Alan Davies to Engineering Manager and looking to appoint at least one new CAD Design Engineer, as well as a Technical Service Engineer to work in the North of England.
Alan joined Simba six years ago as a Design Engineer and has been fully involved in the design and development of machines like the SL range and DTX cultivator.
In his new role, he will work closely with Colin Adams, Production Director, Mark Simms, Supply Chain Manager and Adrian Hartley, Chief Designer:
"Adrian will continue to lead the development of the company’s new products, while I will over-see day to day running of the department and working on improvements to our existing machines.
"One key aim of this expansion is to ensure that Simba continues to improve production quality so we meet the demands of our farmer customers across Britain and export markets.
"We will also ensure we continue to introduce new products that help customers achieve more cost effective, efficient cultivations".
Guy Leversha, Sales and Marketing Director, says the new appointments will strengthen the department and help the company achieve its long-term aims: "These moves will enable Simba to continue with its policy of continual improvement, combining the introduction of new equipment with constant updating and improvement of existing ranges.
"This policy has enabled the company to achieve outstanding growth in recent years, something that has only been possible because the machinery we design and build fully meets the needs of farmers looking for efficient and cost-effective machinery to help them run their businesses better".
GOLDEN GLOW FROM 50th DOE SHOW
The 50th Doe Show attracted good visitor numbers
The 50th Doe Show attracted another huge audience to their Maldon branch. And sales of Simba kit were strong, both from Does’ stock and straight off our stand!
"The Doe Show is always an important event in the calendar, and this year’s 50th anniversary show proved excellent, generating several retail sales, among them a new 5.5m X-Press and a Pronto 4DC drill from our stand, and several ex-demo and second hand machines from Doe’s stock", says Guy Leversha.
For Doe’s Sales Director Graham Parker said: "We were delighted with the show, which attracted 15,000 people over the three days. We sold a significant volume of equipment. Our staff also have a good number of Simba sales leads to follow up and we will be doing plenty of demonstrations this spring".
Focus of attention . . . the SL draws interest
GERMAN VISITORS INSPECT THE SL
Among the visitors to our stand at the Doe Show was a group of German farmers who took a special interest in the SL cultivator, says Simon Revell, Simba’s Export Director:
"The German farming group Acker Power gbr is a joint venture whose members farm very heavy reclaimed land on the West coast of Germany just North of the Dutch border.
"They have tried a range of cultivators, but all have struggled on their very particular soil type. They are interested in Simba’s machines because they know the company has great knowledge and experience of working heavy land.
"Their visit to the UK included visiting AWT, a major farming company based near Saffron Walden, Essex which uses an SL for primary cultivations on similar soils to those they work.
"We expect to set up working demonstrations this summer, working with Jim Thygesen, from Kragmann – our existing Danish importer – which has great experience of working with the high powered tractors like QuadTracs. In addition, this project fits in well with their ambitions to expand into Germany".
BUSINESS TOUGH FROM NORTH TO SOUTH
Talking business . . David Holmes (right) talks to visitors
Winter machinery shows held right across the country have highlighted some challenging trading conditions.
Farmers may be keeping their money in their pockets and their grain ‘in store’ until cereal prices rise, but they are still willing to discuss ways of reducing their costs and showing interest in Simba’s machinery and in the range of field trials in which the company is involved.
Territory Manager Ross Gregg, who attended events at the Royal Bath & West Showground and Oakes Bros’ two day event at its Micheldever, Hampshire base, says farmers were understandably cautious due to low grain prices: "We still had a lot of interest in Sprinter and Pronto DC drills, and in the DTX cultivator and the 3m X-Press and ST Bar".
Reporting from Burgess’ Show, Territory Manager Steve Burcham says farmers showed interest in both the Pronto DC drill and DTX cultivator, but were more concerned about not being able to get sugar beet drilled due to poor weather and wet ground.
David Holmes, UK Sales Manager, says visitors to the Burdens Show, held at the Lincolnshire Aircraft Museum at East Kirkby, were keen to discuss new ideas: "These shows give you time to have detailed discussions about different farming techniques and crops, rather than just about machines, especially if the visitors have also visited any of our oilseed rape establishment trial sites".
The Aberdeen Spring Fair at Thainstone Market, Inverurie, saw a welcome return to action for our Territory Manager Jimmie Carver following a hip operation, and he also reports that current crop prices are top of farmers’ minds:
"We received good enquiries about new and second-hand drills, but farmers are waiting to see if grain prices rise this spring, and investment decisions are being delayed. Quite a few are considering whether to leave land due for spring sowing fallow if they cannot be confident of making money".
Alan Davies (2nd left) guides the students around an SL cultivator
CRANFIELD STUDENTS GET ‘PRACTICAL’
A group of five students from Cranfield University got a practical introduction to how cultivation equipment is designed and made when they visited the company’s plant at Sleaford.
The students – studying a Soil Management course – were keen to learn more about the practical aspects of designing cultivation equipment, as one of their number, Andrew Jarratt, explains:
"We were keen to learn how machinery manufacturers address the issues we are tackling on this course, which include tillage and management practices that address compaction, soil porosity, water infiltration and soil erosion issues.
"We were very interested to learn how Simba designs machinery to help cope with these issues. We all came away with a really good idea of how difficult it is to design and manufacture high quality cultivation equipment and the sort of commercial pressures that companies like Simba face".
2,000 LEARN BENEFITS OF REDUCED TILLAGE
János Szili
Our Hungarian importers Axial spread the word about the benefits of reduced tillage systems to over 2,000 farmers at a series of seminars held across the country.
The seminars included a presentation on the oilseed rape establishment trials that Simba completed alongside Monsanto in Hungary last year, as Territory Manager Janos Szili explains:
"Axial organised presentations in 13 locations, and attracted over 2,000 of their customers to hear the latest information on the current issues facing Hungarian and world agriculture, as well as a review of recent trends in cultivation methods and agricultural engineering.
"Istvan Csorba, a director of Axial, made a very informative presentation about trends in modern tillage technologies, and highlighted that – as well as being slow and expensive – ploughing can cause damage to soil structure.
"He was able to illustrate the points he made thanks to the latest research results from Debrecen University, which highlight the benefits of using reduced tillage, these figures proving the benefits to soil structure, cultivation time and cost and potential for yield improvements.
"These results are backed up by the information Simba can provide from UK trials. By the end of these presentations many more farmers in the audience understood the benefits they might be able to access in the long term.
"The results of the 2009 oilseed rape establishment trials – which concluded the presentation – which compared machines like Simba’s SL cultivator against the FlatLiner and the plough, proved very effective.
"Along with Axial’s staff, I was very busy answering questions from interested farmers at the end of the talks, and we will be staging field demonstrations for many farmers over the coming months".
Simon Revell
UKRAINE PROGRESS
Exports Director Simon Revell highlighted the value of Simba equipment and non-inversion tillage to an audience of Ukranian farmers attending a conference held alongside the InterAgro Show in Kiev.
He spoke via an interpreter – in this case Tikhon Yevtushenko from UVC, our importer for the country:
"I did a presentation on cost effective cultivations, highlighting how Simba equipment could help the country’s farmers reduce cultivation and crop establishment costs.
"Ukranian farmers still use a lot of conventional cultivations, although some minimal and non-inversion tillage has been practised as well. In general this has been very much shallow surface-down cultivation, which has had limited success.
"We are receiving great interest – not least from researchers in the agricultural school at Kiev University – in our approach. “They are keen to evaluate our techniques, as embodied in cultivators like the SL that complete a deeper seedbed restructuring operation at the same time as cultivating and incorporating trash in the seedbed".
FUTURE OF SOIL RESEARCH A KEY CONCERN
Philip Wright wishes more Government researchers would join him in a soil pit!
The lack of any Government-funded soil research is a growing concern to the arable industry, says Philip Wright, of Wright Resolutions and consultant to Simba.
After speaking at a Farmers’ Club conference held at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, he said:
"This event was part of the Farmers’ Club’s push to highlight the lack of Government funding for basic soil research. While a lot of such work is being done, it is largely commercially sponsored and organised.
"I spoke about how soil structure is affected by and changes according to the style of cultivation performed, and the soil type and moisture levels. There is great interest in reducing trafficking and compaction, but there is a real need for more research into the subject. It is a significant worry among farmers that there is no Government funding for basic research".
Jamie Gwatkin
JOIN FORCES TO CUT COSTS
Joining forces with neighbours can achieve big cuts in arable production bills – and especially in crop establishment costs.
That was the message from Jamie Gwatkin of the Joint Ventures Farming Group, of which Simba is one of the main sponsors. The JVFG contains 16 farms working some 70,000 acres which bench mark against eachother and share their experiences to help all of them improve.
The group’s members have generally got a good grip on their costs, he says, with primary cultivations for the 2009 harvest averaging £35.78/hectare, with secondary cultivations at £23.69/ha. Drilling averaged £26.49/ha and rolling £8.58/ha.
These were a little higher than the previous year, he said, due to harder working conditions, which led to a slightly higher bill for repairs and wearing parts during the year:
"The key areas in which our members achieve cost savings are in crop establishment and harvesting, although some report that the efficiencies they are achieving also feed through into higher crops yields".
SEED-BED FERTILISER EXAMINED AT STOUGHTON
The DTX is platform for both seeder and fertiliser spreader
Adding a little fertiliser in the seedbed could help enable oilseed rape crops get through the winter better.
That is the early conclusion from trial plots established at the Co-Operative’s farm at Stoughton, Leicestershire – one of many trials in which Simba is involved. Niall Atkinson, who is running the trials, said the plots that received seedbed fertiliser did look healthier:
"The fertiliser was applied behind the DTX’s legs using a Horstine applicator mounted just infront of the Stocks seeder on top of the cultivator.
"The seedbed fertiliser has little effect on plant populations or Green Area Index (GAI) ahead of the winter. But there was a noticeable difference when we measured the crops in February. Fertilised crops had a much better GAI, which is the first indication we have of any benefit. At the moment our best guess is that the plants were that bit stronger and better able to withstand a long, cold and damaging winter. We will be interested to take the plots to yield to see whether that has a benefit come harvest".
Lubos Jelenik (left) receives his company’s award from Vasek Madl, with Simon Revell (right)
TOP CZECH DEALER ANNOUNCED
Excellent performance earned its rewards when AgriCS, our importer for the Czech Republic, announced its “Dealer of the Year” and “Demonstrator of the Year” at its annual conference, attended by around 30 staff from a dozen dealers.
In 2009 AgriCS achieved higher sales than 2008, despite the tougher trading conditions, says Pavel Novak, the company’s marketing manager:
"We are making sales following excellent field trials with machines like the SL, which showed Czech farmers how they can achieve higher crop yields than with conventional machinery, and also reduce the costs and time taken to establish them.
"These trial results have really helped persuade our farmers that Simba kit is worth investing in, and that they can make a real improvement in their profitability".
Dealer of the Year – for selling both the largest number of machines and the greatest value of sales, was Agroobchod Nove Straseci, for whom sales representative Lubos Jelinek received a diploma and a crystal plaque.
Demonstrator of the Year went to Pavel Jakubowski from Mitrenga: "This dealer achieved excellent performance when demonstrating Simba machinery to farmers this year, which we hope will bring them success in sales this year".
Vasek Madl and Simon Revell, Simba’s Exports Director, briefed the dealers on Simba’s plans for 2010 and the future, which includes exhibiting at the Techagro 2010 show in Brno, where the company will have a major stand.
