Machinery sales surge as south-west farmers expand following favourable seasons

Colac's Greg Allan Farm Machinery sales consultant Paul Liistro said demand for farming machinery had prompted the business to order a year ahead.

"It's been another enormous year," he said.

"We're ordering harvest gear for next year right now. Things that normally three or four weeks are taking 12 to 16 and the wait times are going to be massive."

He said there were a range of factors leading to the surge in demand.

"For us this year we've had a really good year selling tractors," he said.

"The $150,000 tax write off has been a huge catalyst. Farmers have got confidence at the moment, we've had a couple of wet years where people are growing grass very easily, the milk prices are good, so they're getting high value for their product and hard work.

"You couple those two things together and it's the right time for a lot of farmers to be updating their machinery.

"There's a lot of farmers who say it's the right time for them to be upgrading to larger machinery or they're looking for something more technology-based. With the technology side for things that's becoming more and more prevalent and that saves a lot of time energy and money.

"If you're more accurate with a fertiliser spreader that's money saved in your pocket so having something as simple as auto steer makes a huge different."

IN OTHER NEWS:

He said many farmers were dealing with larger-than-ever crops.

"Harvest gear has been massive," he said.

"With the ground over the last couple of years being so wet it's meant when we've been able to get onto paddocks the grounds are quite undulating and quite rough so there's a lot of machines out there battling with ground like that.

"The crops are abnormally large so they're pushing machines to their absolute limit and it's an opportunity for people to jump into some newer updated machinery that handle the challenge a bit better.

"We had a wet summer last year which doesn't normally happen but we've had a wet spring so we've just had ideal growing conditions. We haven't had a really hot summer so far which absorbs the moisture out of the ground."

NAB business banking executive for South West Victoria said growth was forecasted to continue with "everybody looking to spend on new items at the moment."

"We're having another record season from a dairy perspective, prices are high and seasonal conditions are extremely favourable for our dairy farmers in this region," she said.

"We're seeing continued growth- this really kicked off with the government's instant asset write off scheme but that's now being fueled by those favourable conditions that we're seeing for a second or even a third year in most instances across the south-west.

"We're in a favourable interest rate environment as well, money is cheaper for those types of assets in terms of borrowing. We've had a record month in our team across October and November and it hasn't stopped in December. We're seeing record numbers of sales across the board - in the quarter, our sales are up nearly 10 per cent year-on-year.

"Supply is a real challenge for suppliers across the region at the moment. We've got clients waiting up to six months for some specific items so even in a challenging supply environment we're still seeing those increase sales."

Now just one tap with our new app: Digital subscribers now have the convenience of faster news, right at your fingertips with The Standard:

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: