Day 2.. MF Super DNA roadshow and demo tour in Poland.

Today we were at the second of Korbanek’s Agrocentres in the North of Poland and received an even larger crowd of farmers than at yesterday’s event in Posnan. Field demonstrations are less common in this region of Poland and so many farmers took the opportunity to come and see with their own eyes what we had to offer and to try out potential purchases for themselves.

The Agrocentre is almost new and has every facility required to support sales, parts and service for the MF range including a very well stocked parts warehouse.

In a rather more sobering moment, we spent a moment at the War Memorial which forms part of the site which commemorates an infamous atrocity committed towards the end of World War 2. It is somehow fitting to know that this site is now being used to help Polish farmers increase food production and that those days are well in the past.

Our visitors today included a large consignment of students from the local Agricultural College who eagerly pounced on the free posters available. By far the most popular were those of  Massey Ferguson Combine harvesters which rather surprised us as the area is much more mixed farming.

One thing is for certain, the farmers here certainly know how to try out and test tractors, with various depths of ploughing being tried and various performance trials taking place in the working area. All of the demo tractors appear to be equally popular but it is the 80 – 150 HP machines that farmers are mainly asking for firm price quotations on. Although we are not running MF 3600 in the field, these nimble machines are on display in the Agrocentre and form part of the initial product presentation together with MF Combines and Balers.

We finished up the demo in a very good mood as our MF pedal tractor was won by a Grandfather who had brought his two grandsons with him, aged around 3 and 4 and their faces were a picture of delight as they scooped up their prize!

A happy grandfather and grandson receive the first prize!

We weren’t smiling quite so much when our GPS systems told us that the move to the next location, 120 miles away would take us over 4 hours, mainly because there are a limited number of fast roads in this part of the world. However we soon cheered up as we watched the many MF tractors en route including a particularly nice MF 6245 ploughing away in a field next to the road and various MF Combines still working in what looked to be a crop like Soybeans. With so many farms now using minimum tillage systems, it was very interesting to note that the plough is very much alive and well here and still seems to be the main tool used in cultivation.

History and heritage seem to be very important here and each night, so far, we have heated discussions about who actually invented the Combine Harvester (self propelled ). We know it of course to be Massey Harris in 1938 and the legendary Tom Carroll but another well known Harvesting brand in these parts is making claims that they were indeed the first. Not the most important issue facing the world but in honour and with respect of our forefathers in the company, we will without any question prevail and win the “argument”. I will be pleased to receive any additional information on this subject from anyone who could advise why another Company may feel justified in making this erroneous assertion?