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Cheffins’ August Machinery Sales bucks the trend

August 2008 Sale Report. By Bill Pepper

What a difference a year makes! This time last year, there was a high degree of optimism especially from the agricultural sector. With cereal prices pushing over £150 a tonne - a massive increase on the previous year - farmers, dealers and even auctioneers were rubbing their hands in almost glee of the perceived good times ahead.

On the construction side, to borrow money was cheap, to buy building land was expensive and there was no real sign of the near cataclysmic bursting of the building bubble which the property market now seems to be experiencing.

Twelve months on and it’s all quite different. Input costs for fuel, seed and especially fertiliser have soared and the prices for the end products have reduced. And as for the building industry, we’re all aware of the almost daily newspaper headlines of negative equity, falling house prices and “where’s it all going to end” comments from supposedly informed people. With all this bad news we thought we were in for a disappointing sale especially for the construction equipment but fortunately we bucked the trend in all sections: we had a real good one!

With a mixed entry of 385 tractors, 56% found new homes. As has been the trend this year, the Eastern European markets dominate and we are still getting fresh “Polski” buyers attending every sale. My pathetic attempts at the Polish language: “ tamten tani traktor” (that’s a cheap tractor), “tak, my ronic miec V5” (yes, we do have the V5) and “ wiwatowac, tamten silny wodka.!” (wow, that’s strong vodka.!) all get an appreciative nod of approval and spurs them on to go one extra bid. And bid they did. £31,800 for a JD 6630 showing 1150 hours with slight cab damage, £22,800 for an 04 JD 6620, £14,600 for a plain MF 4255 as well as strong bidding for a range of other makes and models, pushed the sale total for the tractor section to the highest ever for August.

Southern Ireland was back on form, good to see, with strong bidding for Masseys and New Hollands and Germany together with the Netherlands bid strongly for the better quality kit. Tractor sale 2 also featured a mixed selection with an equally mixed selection of home and overseas buyers. A smaller entry of the venerable MF 100 series helped push the prices for the Massey 500 and 600 series up and over 60% of these sold. Zetors also made the money and a vast majority will ultimately be heading east.

We have been expecting the downturn in building activity in the UK and Eire to have a dramatic effect on the Contractors’ Plant section of our sale. While the demand for specific items such as mixers, dumpers and larger excavators has certainly become non-existent, the trade for most other types of machine has been held up with the help of our many export buyers.

JCB 3CXs continue to sell well especially mid to late 1990’s manual models. JCB 3CX contractors were also in good demand this month. Fermec, Massey Ferguson, and Case digger loaders are still finding new homes within Europe; New Hollands are probably the most difficult to move. The telescopic trade is selective. Late 17m models are in demand for Middle East, new and older 7m machines are selling well to home and European buyers. The difficult models to sell are late 12m machines where supply is outweighing demand. Mini diggers up to 3 ton sold well on Monday, mainly to UK and Mainland Europe. The Middle East demand for good rollers and compressors remains strong, with most finding new homes. We need to keep a good entry of digger loaders, especially JCBs, to attract export buyers.

The machinery section saw a good demand for hedgecutters, especially clean McConnel and Bomford models, mainly finding new homes in Eire and Northern Ireland. There was an exceptional trade for reversible ploughs 4, 5 and 6 furrow Kverneland, Lemken, Rabe and Vogel and Noot all sold well to Germany and Poland. Due to unseen poor seasonal weather, baler trade was very disappointing.

Horticultural items sold well with a 97% clearance rate of small rotary mowers, unlike larger ride-on cylinder models which were difficult to sell. Overseas trade for engines and spare parts still remain very high for good clean useable items.

Our next sale is on Monday 8th September 2008 with entries closing on Friday 22nd August. Please let us have your entries as soon as possible.

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BRISTOL
Our next Bristol Sale is on Wednesday 24th September 2008 with catalogue entries closing on Friday 5th September. All entries are welcome as we continue to build on the tremendous success we have enjoyed at Easter Compton.