A group of John Deere machinery dealers from the US will return to the National Ploughing Championships looking for new equipment to sell from their showrooms back home, I hear.

If they walk the rows and blocks, they will see suitable diet feeders, balers and slurry tanks. However, what they won’t come across is a big John Deere display.

Maybe when their legs get weary and they’re desperate for a cup of coffee and a ham sandwich, they’ll have to drop into rival manufacturer stands, such as Massey Ferguson, Same Deutz-Fahr, Landini/McCormick or Kubota.

And any equipment salesperson that spots a footsore, good ole country boy with a John Deere baseball cap would be smart to offer a cup of coffee with maybe a drop of the quare stuff in it.