Over the two days in February in Cowra more than 300 dealers and customers attended the KUHN Farm Machinery Expo held at locals’ Tom and Ben Johnstone’s property. Source: Western Magazine
Both Tom and Ben said the expo was great.
“It’s a good thing for Cowra, it’s a good opportunity for us to see the equipment in our own environment,” they said.
“KUHN have been very good, they’re easy people to work with, we’ve never had any trouble with them. We even have some of their equipment they’ve been really good to deal with,” they said.
The event was a unique opportunity to meet global product experts from the United States and Europe as well as get hands on experience with KUHN’s innovative farm machinery.
Bruno Fetiveau, managing director of KUHN Farm Machinery said the decision to hold the event in Cowra was due to its central location.
“Cowra is very central for NSW we decided to develop our business more and focus on the NSW area,” he said. “We started two or three years ago with the recruitment of a territory manager the first time in NSW and with the development of our dealer network we though it was about time to show our commitment to the market”.
Mr Fetiveau said the company’s new developments would fit the New South Wales market.
“It’s a very different market we’ve been working intensively mainly in Victoria as the product range we have has been focused on hay making equipment,” he said.
“But today with the development of our product range, the acquisition of new factories that operate larger tillage equipment and having new products coming from the fertilizer spreader factory that fits into the broad acre crop production, we thought that it was really good to hold it (the expo) in NSW”.
Mr Fetiveau said the company had enjoyed good results in the previous years.
“I would say the years gone by have probably shown good results and a momentum in terms of equipment needs,” he said.
“We’re not part of the tractor industry but we know when tractor sales are positive that leads the market for implements and we can really see that, at least, for the last three years we’ve been in a positive environment where every year the sales have increased.
“Of course, when the customers are impacted by the price of commodities like milk or wheat or any other commodities that operates in Australia today, we are impacted as well and that’s something that unfortunately we can’t do anything about.”
The expo showcased 30 machines, demonstrating the company’s strength and technology in design and manufacturing as well as four new implements never before seen in Australia.
Mr Fetiveau said although the new equipment was only now being demonstrated to the Australian market, KHUN often tested new equipment in Australia due to it’s harsh conditions.
“Australia is unique in many ways but there is one thing that we do the other way round and that is we do tests here,” he said. “Because it’s a hard, tough country with different harsh conditions we do test a lot of machines here.
“Australia represents two per cent of the worlds agriculture, it’s very small in terms of farming equipment because of the harsh conditions we have prototypes working here and data sent back to our main factories.”
Hutcheon and Pearce’s Matt Newham said the expo was unique event.
“It’s pretty unique as you get to see the gear operate,” he said. “A lot of the field days now are static, whereas you come here and all this gear is going to get out there and get dirty, the customer is going to see the job it does on the ground. The Johnstones have been good enough to let us use their lucerne and be able to cut and bail that right in front of everybody.”
