In Spain: New farming machinery sales in 2017

Every year, we publish information about new farming machinery sales in Spain since 2012 (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016). The Ministry of Agriculture published this information a few days ago (you have all information from here)... our intention is to speak about the most interesting data.

Firstly, the total number of new tractors sold continues rising. Since 2012 the amount has not stopped growing, the last year reached 12,476 new tractors. In some cases, the amount of new tractors is due to the change of legislation since this year, 2018, that will make it impossible to sell some models of tractors, so they had to be registered in 2017.

Sales by brands are still led by John Deere (2,749 tractors in 2017, 2,688 tractors in 2016, 2,661 in 2015 and 2,590 in 2014) and New Holland (2,160 tractors in 2017, 2,067 tractors in 2016, 1,933 in 2015 and 1,935 in 2014). Regarding sales by Groups, CNH is the winner (3.002 tractors in 2017, 2,882 tractors in 2016, 2,719 in 2015 and 2,699 in 2014). Also, another interesting fact is to know what is the best-selling brand by average power: Fendt is the winner again ((165.1HP/tractor)) after Claas in last year. However, Fendt was the number one in 2015 (170.2 HP/tractor) and 2014 (184 HP/tractor). You have more information bellow:

The best-selling tractor was theJohn Deere 6115MC, so it removed the first position at New Holland T4.95 (it was the winner in last years). In this way, the ranking of best-selling tractor models would be below:

• 1st position: John Deere 6115 MC (297 units).
• 2nd position: John Deere 6130 M (237 units).
• 3rd position: N?ew Holland T4.95 (231 units).
• 4th position: John Deere 6155 M (222 units).
• 5th position: New Holland T4.105 (201 units).

Regarding new farming machinery sales in 2017, we would like to show a chart where you can see monthly sales. You have data about tractors, trailers, tillage machinery, seed drills, mowers or harvesting machinery, etc…. We would like to mention that a total amount of 37,667 new machines were sold in 2017 (compared to 33,950 in 2016). More data to highlight about new farming machinery sales are the following ones:

• New trailers sales: 4,790 units in 2017, 5,061 units in 2016, 5,147 units in 2015, 5,251 units in 2014 and 5,570 units in 2013.
• Regarding trailed or mounted machinery:
• Soil tillage machinery: 2,677 units in 2017, 2,151 units in 2016, 2,673 units in 2015 and 2,378 in 2014.
• Seed drills machinery: 823 units in 2017, 622 units in 2016, 783 units in 2015 and 692 in 2014.
• Crop protection machinery: 9,073 units in 2017, 8,094 units in 2016, 5,752 units in 2015 and 4,754 units in 2014.
• Spreaders and felitizing machinery: 2,238 units in 2017, 2,001 units in 2016, 2.115 units in 2015 and 2,189 units in 2014.
• Harvesters’ machinery: 1,968 units in 2017, 1,750 units in 2016, 1,989 units in 2015 and 1,939 units in 2014.

New combines harvesters sold last year have a special mention since in 2017 and 2016 only 304 units were sold (while the previous years the data were: 310 units in 2015 and 360 unit in 2014), the winner is still Claas (107 units). We would like to highlight Massey Ferguson began to sell combines harvesters in Spain during last year (8 units).

Now, we are going to speak about automotive grape harvesters. 80 units were sold in 2017 (while 96 units were sold in 2016, 67 units in 2015 and 94 units in 2014). The leader is New Holland again with 56.25% of market rate.

In our opinion: the sales of new tractors continues to rise despite the great drought of 2017, CNH consolidates as a leading group, John Deere remains the leader for brands although it loses market penetration. An important increase of ARGO Group is thanks to its Landini main brand. Fendt regains the number one in the ranking of power, Arbos begins to sell its Goldoni Series tractors. Lastly, we can observe the spectacular drop of Kubota in all respects, mainly in average power sold.

You have more details on www.masquemaquina.com blog.

Versión en español.

Poor olive harvesting performance

The tasks of harvesting olive trees is now being finished in Spain. In our area, production has been significantly reduced regarding the previous years. Mainly, due to the great drought that has occurred in 2017. As you can see in our video, normally, we harvest about 3,000kg in one hectare and on this occasion our production has fallen and it was only of 670kg. On the other hand, we have to say the fatty performance is really good so the olive oil will be prime. In our field, where the average fatty performance is about 22%, this year was of 23.3% as you can see in our first picture.

Our friend Rafa Villanueva sent us a few pictures about his olive trees. It was planted in 1996 and there are about 1,056 olive trees (in 8.6he) using a plantation frame of 9x9. It is a large plantation frame, but after 20 year Rafa has told us that this plantation frame is the best option when field has poor soil and it is dry field. Rafa has Cornicabra variety (50%) and Picual variety (50%). The Picual variety has better production but Cornicabra variety gets better fatty performance and olive trees are more vigorous.

We like olive trees crop so much and we are planting more olive trees in our farm. We planted 600 olive trees last year and this year we will plant about 1,000... all of them are of Picual variety. Annual tasks of this crop are explained in the following paragraphs:

• 3 harrowing works: in order to kill weeds and keep soil moisture.
• 2 phytosanitary treatments: in spring and another in autumn to control olive fly.
• Fertilizer: it is foliar fertilizer with phytosanitary treatments. Every 3 or 4 years 400-500kg/he of fertilizer (inorganic fertilizer or organic fertilizer when farm is in ecological agriculture).
• Pruning. We prune olive trees every 2 year or every year half of farm.
• We have to remove new brands (bottom part of the trunk) in August or September.
• Harvesting tasks in December: If these task are mechanized using collector (olive trees only have one trunk) they are really quickly and they are more economic than when you have to harvest olives in traditional olive trees.

We will speak about mechanized harvesting in next posts. On this occasion, we show you some pictures of our friend Espejo and Curita, who are working with their front and rear collector.

Versión en español.