The key messages delivered by CEETTAR president Klaus Pentzlin to the Association of Farm Contractors of Ireland (FCI) conference were: “We have enough iron in agriculture” and “I do not support the idea of grant aid for farm machinery investment”.

The event attracted an attendance of almost 200 people and was followed by a machinery exhibition in the afternoon, coupled with interesting mini-seminars.

In opening the conference, FCI national chair John Sheehy said the theme of recognising the role of farm contractors was part of the association’s ongoing efforts to raise the profile of farm contractors.

He said that the quality of service and work provided by farm contractors in Ireland is now at a very high level.

“It’s a level of service that’s almost instantly available to our farming customers. It is also a quality of service that has allowed Irish farmers and food producers to be among the most sustainable food producers in the world,” he added.

“Our unique part in the progress of Irish farming demands a new level of partnership that recognises the special role of the farm contractor. Our role needs to be recognised and we can no longer sit and watch as policy changes erode our incomes or add to our operating costs,” he said.

Klaus, also president of the German contractors association BLU, addressed the conference and gave an overview of CEETTAR activities on behalf of 30,000 European farm contractors.

He told the conference how CEETTAR had worked on issues of tachographs and ABS braking requirements for tractors in an effort to keep tractor costs from rising further.

Klaus added: “I don’t like grant support for machinery investment. Many farm contractors have already invested in new technology systems and providing grant aid to contractors and farmers only reduces the rate that these existing progressive contractors can charge for their services.

“I would like to see the EU fund training for young farmers to educate them on how to run their businesses, in understanding how the markets work and on how to work effectively with farm contractors,” said Klaus. “We have enough iron on every side of agriculture and I don’t think that we need any more,” he added.

He told the conference that farm contracting is a profession in Germany. The BLU has worked to create a state-recognised training programme so that only those young people who have completed three years of training can call themselves a contractor.

“We are very proud of our professional status and the political system has taken note of us as a result,” Klaus told the conference.

He said that many contractors have too much machinery. “You do not need to be a full-liner to be a successful contractor, but you need to sell the quality of your work, not your price,” he said.

Costs

Farm consultant PJ Phelan gave a presentation on his approach to developing a simple system using the contractor’s accounts to estimate the annual and daily cost of doing work.

He suggested that contractors look at total costs in their accounts and divide that by the total number of litres of diesel used for the year.

“This figure gives you a diesel cost index, based on each litre of fuel used,” said PJ.

“That means that if you go out to work and use 800 litres of fuel and multiply that by the cost factor index, that will tell you how much money that particular day cost you,” he added.

Finance

Eamonn O’Reilly of AIB’s agricultural team gave an insight into opportunities for finance for contractor services. He noted that agricultural contractors are a unique group within the Central Bank’s category groups, making contractors part of the bank’s overall funding strategy.

Eamonn dealt with issues of cashflow for contractors and emphasised the need for cashflow coming from the profitability of the business.

The event was supported by 26 companies from within the farm machinery and services sector to farm contracting.