The need to cut agricultural chemical use is driving increased demand for mechanical weeding and hi-tech precision hoes, said a Norfolk farm machine dealer.
Ben Burgess, based in Trowse, on the outskirts of Norwich, has signed a new distributor agreement with Peterborough-based firm Garford Farm Machinery, which has been designing and manufacturing progressive farm equipment for more than 30 years.
It includes mechanical weed control products such as the Robocrop range of precision-guided hoes and in-row weeders.
David Fairman, sales director at Ben Burgess, said adding this UK-made technology to the firm's product portfolio is a "real positive" which "ties in with our commitment to sustainable agriculture".
And he believes that increasingly stringent controls over the use of chemical weedkillers will see mechanical hoeing and inter-crop cultivation become common practice again on East Anglia's farms as they seek to embrace new environmental responsibilities and funding policies.
"We firmly believe we are already seeing a natural swing back to mechanical weeding, not only for high value and high-intensive crops, but also across broadacre crops,” said Mr Fairman.
"While the specialist and high-value crop growers will always use inter-row and in the row weeding, we feel it is a really exciting place to be, around mainstream broadacre and large-scale arable operations."
Garford Farm Machinery approached Ben Burgess following its acquisition of 50-year-old family-run machine dealership JW Doubleday last August.
Garford machines will be available across Ben Burgess' 11 branches in East Anglia and the East Midlands, including the four previously owned by JW Doubleday.
Garford sales manager Andy Baggott said the firm is "delighted and excited" to be working with Ben Burgess to expand sales territories across the east of England.
"This is very much the first step towards expanding our dealership network across the UK and Ireland over the coming months, and the link up with Ben Burgess is a perfect fit, extending and supporting our previous relationship with JW Doubleday since 2016," he said.
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