Farming smarter with technology
The National Fieldays is an annual fixture in the farming calendar: it draws in thousands of farmers, contractors, and industry professionals from across the country.
Well known European brands Sulky, Sky and Prolog have been brought together under a single brand called Sky Agriculture, ditching their blue, green and red colour schemes for a new graphite grey and titanium white corporate look.
All part of the Burel Group, the company is looking to build on record net sales of €85 million for the 2022-2023 financial year, suggesting that the single-brand strategy will enable it to adapt to the changing face of agricultural equipment distribution in Europe in a market that is becoming more concentrated.
The creation of Sky Agriculture is also intended to support the group’s export growth, that currently sees around 40% of production sold outside of France, with a short-term aim of pushing this to 50%.
Dairy News understands that the first Sky Agriculture branded machines are already leaving the group’s four production sites of Carvin, Fontenay and Chateaubourg in France, and Osasco in Italy, with the new look to be publicly showcased at the German Agritechnica Event in November.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says the 2025 Fieldays has been one of more positive he has attended.
A fundraiser dinner held in conjunction with Fieldays raised over $300,000 for the Rural Support Trust.
Recent results from its 2024 financial year has seen global farm machinery player John Deere record a significant slump in the profits of its agricultural division over the last year, with a 64% drop in the last quarter of the year, compared to that of 2023.
An agribusiness, helping to turn a long-standing animal welfare and waste issue into a high-value protein stream for the dairy and red meat sector, has picked up a top innovation award at Fieldays.
The Fieldays Innovation Award winners have been announced with Auckland’s Ruminant Biotech taking out the Prototype Award.
Following twelve years of litigation, a conclusion could be in sight of Waikato’s controversial Plan Change 1 (PC1).
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