The mix of farming enterprises in the Carlow-Kilkenny region makes for an interesting range of farm machinery needs. Farmers and contractors in the region have worked diverse land conditions with a range of crops, where the demands of machinery are always changing.

The scale of farming and farm contracting has also dictated machinery choices. These are counties where cattle, dairy and sheep farmers live comfortably side by side with extensive tillage farming operations. The machinery demands will differ as a result and they will bring wider demands on farm contractors.

These counties have also a rich heritage of machinery development and manufacturing. This heritage has been encouraged and promoted by farm experiences where machines were invented, tested and finally developed with farmers and engineers working hand-in-hand.

There have been significant influences on the path of mechanisation progress. The role of the Carlow sugar factory since the beginning of the 1900s had a huge impact. It spawned an engineering interest that was started with Carlow-based companies such Thomas Thompson in the 1800s. The arrival of the sugar factory in Carlow was the impetus needed for later development. Today, the region is home to some of Ireland’s leading farm machinery manufacturing companies. Companies such as Keenan, Hi-Spec Engineering and Tanco have a world reach, with machinery produced in the region used on farms in all corners of the globe.

The Carlow-Kilkenny region’s diverse mechanisation needs means that a wide range of machinery types will be in use. Tractor power is important and growing in size and scale.

Farmers and contractors are gearing up with more tractor numbers (see graph). The numbers of tractors in the two counties paying annual road tax has increased significantly since 2010, in line with national trends.

The two counties account for only 6.3% of all tractors in the country even though they are farming-intensive. This indicates that relative to other counties they are not over-mechanised and make more efficient use of local contractor services.

It is also interesting to see the impact of local dealers on farmers’ tractor choices (see graph). The John Deere range dominates in both counties, accounting for 18% of all registered tractors in each case.

The counties have a high level of farm machinery sales and service from at least 14 prominent farm machinery dealers.

The south Leinster location gives a central position for these companies to provide a service based from the Carlow Kilkenny region.