According to Lemken CEO, Anthony van der Ley, the company has enjoyed double-digit growth in 2021 with more of the same to come in 2022. This has been achieved in an equal manner across all its markets, Ireland included. Speaking at Lemken’s recent Blue Innovation Day, van der Ley said that agricultural markets look set to remain strong for the first six months of 2022.
We have a full order book at the present time. But it’s not possible to look beyond the mid-point of next year in terms of determining future market trends.
“Innovation will continue to drive the agricultural machinery market and digitalisation will be a powerful tool within the sector, provided we use it with respect.”

Van de Ley believes that intelligent, digital-driven advances will revolutionise agriculture over the coming decades.

A case in point is his assertion that farmers will soon be able to meet the exact needs of individual plants within a crop from a nutrient-provision point of view.
Autonomous machines will soon be a commercial reality.
But it isn’t all plain sailing for machinery-manufacturing companies like Lemken at the present time.

The CEO confirmed that rising input costs are now impacting significantly on market prices across the Lemken product range.

He confirmed that steel prices had risen by 95% over the past 12 months with the costs of electronic components increasing by 50% during the same period. “Fuel and transport costs have increased accordingly,” van der Ley explained.

Lemken - 2022 price increase

Given these factors, Lemken has confirmed that its product prices in Ireland will increase by 10% in 2022, relative to the previous year. All Lemken seed drills and range of cultivation equipment are eligible for TAMS support, the company said.

However, ploughs are not included within the remit of the scheme.

Blue Innovation Day was used as the launch pad for a campaign which will see Lemken put the need for farmers to maximise soil health at the very heart of every communication-related activity it undertakes into the future. The business has had a very close relationship for a number of years with the UK-based agronomy services company, Agrii.

Trial work already undertaken as a result of this collaboration has shown that ploughing alone can reduce blackgrass levels in heavily infested fields by up to 60%.

Later sowing dates will also act to provide farmers with greater opportunities to reduce blackgrass populations, using physical control methods alone.
SOIL TILLAGE