In this week’s machinery pages, we look at the upcoming Crops & Cultivation event taking place next Wednesday 26 June in Carlow. The event will give you the chance to see many different crop establishment methods from differing manufacturers side by side in the demonstration area and all the latest kit on display on the exhibitors’ static stands.

Peter Thomas Keaveney starts a two-part series on time he spent on a tillage and suckler farm in Canada, where the biggest and most technologically advanced machinery is being used.

With 9,000 acres and 650 sucklers, you need all the help you can get. This week, He looks at the cultivation and seeding kit.

Martin Rickatson reports from Cereals in the UK, where a noticeable decline in the attendance of the big manufacturers was seen, giving an opportunity for some of the smaller manufacturers to hog the limelight.

In the motoring section, I drove the Volkswagen up! (Beats version) for a few days and found it surprisingly good at the day-to-day stuff, despite its small size.

In vintage, Simon Henley looks at a firm favourite among Irish tractor enthusiasts, the Zetor Crystal. Many of us will remember a Crystal at this time of year dragging a silage harvester with many contractors around the country.