Farmers, contractors and manufacturers have welcomed the decision of the European Commission to delete the provision in the Commission Regulation 2015/68 that aimed at making tractor manufacturers plan the fitting of ABS braking systems on tractors with a speed between 40km/h and 60km/h.

After an 18-month process where discussions were held with all parties, it was decided that there was no real-world safety advantage to the addition of ABS to tractors travelling between 40km/h and 60 km/hr.

Additional cost

It was also pointed out that the addition of the system would have added around €2,000 to the cost of a tractor.

FCI national chair Richard White said: “We welcome this move as adding ABS braking systems would add disproportionate financial costs for the farm and forestry contractors, which would ultimately delay the effective use of state-of-the-art braking technology on the market.

Joint efforts

“Through the joint efforts of contractor associations across Europe under the umbrella of CEETTAR, land-based contractors were able to co-operate with others to explain why ABS systems had major deficiencies for field operational machinery.

“FCI has worked with CEETTAR through the organisation’s mobile machinery committee to ensure that Irish contractors have the best available technology to provide that their machinery operators have the most effective and safest machinery.”