The end of this year will mark the end of an era for Lemken as it has taken the decision to permanently discontinue production of its conventional field sprayers.

Lemken CEO Anthony Van der Ley has said that after 10 years in this market the company did not achieve a market share worth continuing production for.

“The legal requirements in each of our markets are increasing and becoming more and more disparate. This means that there is no single Lemken field spraying standard that can meet our quality standards and the variety of customer preferences, with which we could achieve a satisfactory production run. We are also seeing that, even from a consumer standpoint, the boundaries for chemical crop care products are becoming ever higher,” the Lemken boss stated.

Product line

The German manufacturer, up until this point had been investing and developing future models, including the self-propelled Nova which generated plenty of hype at Agritechnica 2019.

“Although we introduced several future-focused new models at the last Agritechnica, and our team is extremely motivated by the great reception, we are choosing this moment to break from our field spraying range in a responsible manner,” Van der Ley added.

Future endeavours

Lemken's CEO says the company is now working on taking steps to position itself strongly for the future and by doing so strengthening and expanding its cultivator, drill and other sustainable crop care equipment ranges.

The latter now features rebranded Sulky fertiliser spreaders and mechanical weeder solutions after Lemken's acquisition of Dutch company Steketee two years ago.

Lemken's sprayer manufacturing facility in Haren, Germany is to be retained and expanded for the assembly of seed drills. This will allow additional capacity and increased cultivation equipment manufacturing at its main site in Alpen.

Van der Ley also moved to reassure customers that the supply of parts for existing sprayer owners will continue, while orders will be accepted and fulfilled up until the end of the year.