We have seen several new products enter the market this year, including a number of new tractors, with more in the pipeline. Alongside the theatrical performance of their respective launches, it's difficult to ignore that many of the new machines are created by borrowing components and tech from larger or older models, which has been repurposed for another range, or brought into a lower-spec product family to offer something the old version couldn't do.
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I appreciate how costly it is to develop new products, and how much engineering R&D time is spent on bringing homogeneous controls and software integration across all models of all ranges, but with all-new tractor launches featuring engines used within another brand, cabs from a bigger model and transmissions modified to take a bit more power, but function in essentially the same way, I do wonder where the innovation is.
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Yes, agriculture isn't as profitable for both the farmer and manufacturer as it once was, and may not be again for some time, but it sometimes feels like the challenges are met with making the minimum input to achieve a change, not really being progressive and looking at concepts and new ideas which might push businesses to invest when the replacement is fundamentally better in terms of output productivity and/or cost reduction than the machine it replaces.
I'm not expecting a 1960s-style gas-turbine-powered International Harvester HT-340 (although it would be impressive), but some of the technology being shown by Asian manufacturers, including fuel cells and hybrid electric drives, does make it seem many European manufacturers are too cautious in showing new ideas.
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Within the LAMMA show, we support and judge the Innovation Awards, and I would encourage any manufacturer, large or small, to enter. It doesn't matter how grand or purely functional the innovation is; we need to show that the industry is still full of good ideas, and some of these ideas will make a meaningful difference to farming businesses.
