Walterp
Member
- Location
- Pembrokeshire
In my mind's eye I can see Karol, standing in a sunlit farmyard on a Summer's day long ago. Lanky and blond, with a cheerful grin - no wonder all the Welsh girls liked him; everybody liked him.
Everybody liked his old man, too - Joe Swoboda was one of the Poles who couldn't go home after the War. The mines, steel works and hill farms of the Welsh Valleys naturally drew him, and he settled here. In a hill farming community where hard work was a way of life, Joe was exceptional. He died in a mining accident, working an extra shift single-handed.
If you've ever wondered what nice Polish youngsters working in the UK and Ireland do these days, once they've perfected their English and saved enough money, I can tell you - they go back home and work for machinery dealers.
This particular Welsh hill farmer, replacing his Bomford Dynadrive and Superflow, discovered some interesting stuff along the way. And remembered Karol and and the other kids I grew up with in the Swansea Valley who had a Polish father and a good work ethic.
The Dynadrive says a lot about the kind of country I grew up in, and doesn't exist any more. It was Bomford's best-seller in the 1980's; it was well-designed, strong and cheap to run. Bomford still make it, on special order, but it no longer dominates its home market. Its design hasn't altered in 35 years, and my local dealer hasn't sold one in a long time.
Other European manufacturers kept developing and innovating since then, whilst the UK subscribed to the narrow views of a Lincolnshire shop-keeper's daughter: why bother to design or manufacture anything in the UK when you can just import it, and take a 100% markup?
Who then is surprised that 'support' in the UK has ideological connotations that outweigh economic or practical implications. It's why the UK cannot develop an industrial strategy; or an agricultural one.
“If we left the EU, we would end this sterile debate, and we would have to recognise that most of our problems are not caused by “Brussels”, but by chronic British short-termism, inadequate management, sloth, low skills, a culture of easy gratification and underinvestment in both human and physical capital and infrastructure.” (Boris Johnson)
When Unia - one of Poland's biggest agricultural manufacturers - began to struggle, their Government supported them through their difficulties. In 2018 Unia produced 25,000 machines and employed 1,000 people - a marketing strapline is 'Swedish Steel, Polish Effort'.
Meanwhile the UK has de-industrialised further, and faster, than any other developed country. In 2019 our annual trade deficit in goods hit a record £149 billion. The mines and steel works which drew Joe Swoboda have long shut, and hill farming survives only because the EU supports it.
Instead we fantasise about creating a low-effort, low-regulation, low-investment economy based on laundering dirty Russian money siphoned from its true owners. The ethics of a hedge fund manager - of whom there are too many involved in UK politics. Theresa May has trapped herself, and the UK, into an anti-business, anti-immigration freakshow, mainly through following the advice of one hedge fund employee (Philip May) whilst appeasing another (Jacob Rees-Mogg). Neither has any experience, or interest, in making anyone better-off except themselves. If the UK had a strapline, it might be 'Russian Money, Minimum Effort'.
Attitudes have changed in the UK in other ways, too. UK salesmen - there are no females in UK machinery sales - have an off-hand attitude, so that enquiries are answered slowly, or not at all.
Only one salesman stood out as excellent when I looked for my Bomford replacements (out of a dozen); take a bow J E Rees of Llandysul (Kverneland). Interesting that this family firm of born salesmen have stopped selling Deutz Fahr and taken on the Kubota franchise, winning tractor orders in my area from MF, JD, SDF, etc. on price, reliability and service. When I had a problem with my MF (I was a repeat customer) the most memorable part of the warranty dispute that followed was receiving a kiss-off letter from Abbey Park with all identifiers carefully deleted so as to frustrate correspondence - no email, name, reference, telephone number or even a signature to go on. MF's strapline: 'A World Class After Sales Service'.
When I emailed three Polish dealers, in English, I received immediate
acknowledgements. One - Raitech, the biggest CNH dealer in Poland - even spotted and retrieved my email from 'spam'. Two out of three of my contacts are female: Joanna Dubrowska (Raitech - the CNH dealer and distributor for Unia, MetalTech, Matermacc, etc.) and Anna Slawinska-Radyk (Jaskot Group - a Deutz Fahr dealer and distributor for Rolmako, Rol/Ex, AgroMasz, Metal Technik, etc) plus Krystian Byer (Roltech - a Zetor dealer and distributor for AgroMasz, Staltech, etc). All three are courteous and efficient, and I was impressed.
My order is not large - I wanted a 3 meter mounted skimmer cultivator, and short disc harrows in a trailed 3 meter version with tyre packer and drill linkage. Nevertheless the savings were worthwhile - in the UK, Proforge's spring-back skimmer costs £6,750; its identical equivalent via Jaskot was £3,017. The Rolmako trailed disc harrow I bought isn't actually available in the UK, but a fair comparable is Agro Masz's model - £9,200 with UK's Bullock Tillage and £5,870 with Roltech. Pottinger UK has a similar offer: £19,000 from Tallis Amos with no room to move on the price.
Interesting, too, to reflect on the effect of weak GBP on imports, given that the UK is a net importer. The total cost of purchase and delivery was €14,380; post referendum GBP value (£1 = €1.15) meant a GBP cost of £12,504; pre referendum (£1 = €1.40) the cost to me would have been £10,271.
If I bought a €50,000 Deutz Fahr from Anna, it would have cost me £35,714 in 2016 and £43,478 today - in the Eurozone the tractor could stay at the same price, at the same time as UK farmers experienced a steep price rise purely through adverse currency movements. This nominal Sterling price increase explains virtually all the recent jump in second hand values. (There's no need for a Second Referendum - just make Brexit voters look for a reasonably-priced second hand tractor, until they change their minds).
Rolmako is not the cheapest, but I chose its products for several reasons. I liked the firm's catalogue (it runs to 620 pages, mainly just on harrows and cultivators and their variants - I know a pefectionist when I see one), I liked the favourable comments on Polish farmers' fora, I appreciated the way Anna contacted the manufacturer to make sure that the various options suited Welsh conditions, and some UK farmers on this forum operate Rolmako kit. Rolmako also offers to build to special order.
I am very pleased with my choice, but I could have chosen the Unia or the Agro Masz alternatives with confidence, too. It just happened that I got on with Anna (both she and her colleagues in Jaskot's accounts/transit department are very cheerful - I've never been called "my dear" before), and the whole experience was fun, in the way business used to be and isn't any more.
Delivery was another eye-opener. EU farm machinery manufacturers everywhere are snowed under with orders because of the subventions available, so that in early December Anna provided a delivery date of 16th March. The machines turned up on my yard on the evening of 15th March, care of Grzegorz who hauled it 1,600 km from Lower Silesia on budget (2,400 euro - £1,050 per unit, weighing 4 tonnes) and on time. (Rasta Transport of Ryki).
And the Frisky Bison? Jaskot Group provide a goody bag with various presents, including a bottle of Zubrowka 'Bison Grass' vodka, aromatic and sweet, with a blade of grass from the Bialowieza Forest nature preserve carefully placed in every bottle. Mix with apple juice to get your 'Frisky Bison'. And very nice it is, too.
So now I can say 'hello' in Polish ('witam') but I still can't pronounce 'goodbye' ('do widzenia') - the Polish girls laugh, and say it's easy, and maybe one sunny Summer's day I'll manage it.
Everybody liked his old man, too - Joe Swoboda was one of the Poles who couldn't go home after the War. The mines, steel works and hill farms of the Welsh Valleys naturally drew him, and he settled here. In a hill farming community where hard work was a way of life, Joe was exceptional. He died in a mining accident, working an extra shift single-handed.
If you've ever wondered what nice Polish youngsters working in the UK and Ireland do these days, once they've perfected their English and saved enough money, I can tell you - they go back home and work for machinery dealers.
This particular Welsh hill farmer, replacing his Bomford Dynadrive and Superflow, discovered some interesting stuff along the way. And remembered Karol and and the other kids I grew up with in the Swansea Valley who had a Polish father and a good work ethic.
The Dynadrive says a lot about the kind of country I grew up in, and doesn't exist any more. It was Bomford's best-seller in the 1980's; it was well-designed, strong and cheap to run. Bomford still make it, on special order, but it no longer dominates its home market. Its design hasn't altered in 35 years, and my local dealer hasn't sold one in a long time.
Other European manufacturers kept developing and innovating since then, whilst the UK subscribed to the narrow views of a Lincolnshire shop-keeper's daughter: why bother to design or manufacture anything in the UK when you can just import it, and take a 100% markup?
Who then is surprised that 'support' in the UK has ideological connotations that outweigh economic or practical implications. It's why the UK cannot develop an industrial strategy; or an agricultural one.
“If we left the EU, we would end this sterile debate, and we would have to recognise that most of our problems are not caused by “Brussels”, but by chronic British short-termism, inadequate management, sloth, low skills, a culture of easy gratification and underinvestment in both human and physical capital and infrastructure.” (Boris Johnson)
When Unia - one of Poland's biggest agricultural manufacturers - began to struggle, their Government supported them through their difficulties. In 2018 Unia produced 25,000 machines and employed 1,000 people - a marketing strapline is 'Swedish Steel, Polish Effort'.
Meanwhile the UK has de-industrialised further, and faster, than any other developed country. In 2019 our annual trade deficit in goods hit a record £149 billion. The mines and steel works which drew Joe Swoboda have long shut, and hill farming survives only because the EU supports it.
Instead we fantasise about creating a low-effort, low-regulation, low-investment economy based on laundering dirty Russian money siphoned from its true owners. The ethics of a hedge fund manager - of whom there are too many involved in UK politics. Theresa May has trapped herself, and the UK, into an anti-business, anti-immigration freakshow, mainly through following the advice of one hedge fund employee (Philip May) whilst appeasing another (Jacob Rees-Mogg). Neither has any experience, or interest, in making anyone better-off except themselves. If the UK had a strapline, it might be 'Russian Money, Minimum Effort'.
Attitudes have changed in the UK in other ways, too. UK salesmen - there are no females in UK machinery sales - have an off-hand attitude, so that enquiries are answered slowly, or not at all.
Only one salesman stood out as excellent when I looked for my Bomford replacements (out of a dozen); take a bow J E Rees of Llandysul (Kverneland). Interesting that this family firm of born salesmen have stopped selling Deutz Fahr and taken on the Kubota franchise, winning tractor orders in my area from MF, JD, SDF, etc. on price, reliability and service. When I had a problem with my MF (I was a repeat customer) the most memorable part of the warranty dispute that followed was receiving a kiss-off letter from Abbey Park with all identifiers carefully deleted so as to frustrate correspondence - no email, name, reference, telephone number or even a signature to go on. MF's strapline: 'A World Class After Sales Service'.
When I emailed three Polish dealers, in English, I received immediate
acknowledgements. One - Raitech, the biggest CNH dealer in Poland - even spotted and retrieved my email from 'spam'. Two out of three of my contacts are female: Joanna Dubrowska (Raitech - the CNH dealer and distributor for Unia, MetalTech, Matermacc, etc.) and Anna Slawinska-Radyk (Jaskot Group - a Deutz Fahr dealer and distributor for Rolmako, Rol/Ex, AgroMasz, Metal Technik, etc) plus Krystian Byer (Roltech - a Zetor dealer and distributor for AgroMasz, Staltech, etc). All three are courteous and efficient, and I was impressed.
My order is not large - I wanted a 3 meter mounted skimmer cultivator, and short disc harrows in a trailed 3 meter version with tyre packer and drill linkage. Nevertheless the savings were worthwhile - in the UK, Proforge's spring-back skimmer costs £6,750; its identical equivalent via Jaskot was £3,017. The Rolmako trailed disc harrow I bought isn't actually available in the UK, but a fair comparable is Agro Masz's model - £9,200 with UK's Bullock Tillage and £5,870 with Roltech. Pottinger UK has a similar offer: £19,000 from Tallis Amos with no room to move on the price.
Interesting, too, to reflect on the effect of weak GBP on imports, given that the UK is a net importer. The total cost of purchase and delivery was €14,380; post referendum GBP value (£1 = €1.15) meant a GBP cost of £12,504; pre referendum (£1 = €1.40) the cost to me would have been £10,271.
If I bought a €50,000 Deutz Fahr from Anna, it would have cost me £35,714 in 2016 and £43,478 today - in the Eurozone the tractor could stay at the same price, at the same time as UK farmers experienced a steep price rise purely through adverse currency movements. This nominal Sterling price increase explains virtually all the recent jump in second hand values. (There's no need for a Second Referendum - just make Brexit voters look for a reasonably-priced second hand tractor, until they change their minds).
Rolmako is not the cheapest, but I chose its products for several reasons. I liked the firm's catalogue (it runs to 620 pages, mainly just on harrows and cultivators and their variants - I know a pefectionist when I see one), I liked the favourable comments on Polish farmers' fora, I appreciated the way Anna contacted the manufacturer to make sure that the various options suited Welsh conditions, and some UK farmers on this forum operate Rolmako kit. Rolmako also offers to build to special order.
I am very pleased with my choice, but I could have chosen the Unia or the Agro Masz alternatives with confidence, too. It just happened that I got on with Anna (both she and her colleagues in Jaskot's accounts/transit department are very cheerful - I've never been called "my dear" before), and the whole experience was fun, in the way business used to be and isn't any more.
Delivery was another eye-opener. EU farm machinery manufacturers everywhere are snowed under with orders because of the subventions available, so that in early December Anna provided a delivery date of 16th March. The machines turned up on my yard on the evening of 15th March, care of Grzegorz who hauled it 1,600 km from Lower Silesia on budget (2,400 euro - £1,050 per unit, weighing 4 tonnes) and on time. (Rasta Transport of Ryki).
And the Frisky Bison? Jaskot Group provide a goody bag with various presents, including a bottle of Zubrowka 'Bison Grass' vodka, aromatic and sweet, with a blade of grass from the Bialowieza Forest nature preserve carefully placed in every bottle. Mix with apple juice to get your 'Frisky Bison'. And very nice it is, too.
So now I can say 'hello' in Polish ('witam') but I still can't pronounce 'goodbye' ('do widzenia') - the Polish girls laugh, and say it's easy, and maybe one sunny Summer's day I'll manage it.
Last edited:
