Canada’s Farm Progress Show is known for attracting farm equipment buyers from around the world.
Among the more than 640 international visitors it attracted this year was a group from Czech Republic, who attended for the first time.
The three — Miroslav Andel, Martin Divis and Jirina Pospisilova — represent a farm company called ADW, which has land and livestock but is also a feed and inputs supplier to other farmers in the region southeast of Trebic.
Pospisilova served as the translator.
“We are visiting shows in the United States and we wanted to see something from Canada,” she said on behalf of Divis.
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“We are farmers and there is a lot of equipment here for us.”
The Czechs liked what they saw, but making purchases and taking equipment home is another matter.
“The problem is the European rules,” said Divis. “We need brakes on all equipment. It is the law.”
ADW is considering becoming an importer so it has to figure out how to deal with that issue.
Talking to manufacturers directly at shows like Farm Progress is how to do that, he said. Divis singled out the Schulte mower, while Andel liked Walinga belted trailers.
Andel said there is also the problem of accommodating the large North American equipment on three-metre-wide Czech roads.
Still, they believe there are farmers who would use this type of equipment rather than the smaller equipment they have now.
The average Czech farm is about 3,000 acres; ADW’s base is 9,900 acres. Divis said they see European farm subsidies as a problem because along with the money come rules.
“It would be much better if there was no money from the government,” he said. “If you have freedom, then you can really compete.”
He said Eastern Europeans are good farmers because of their history as part of the Soviet Union. The farms are much bigger than those in France and Germany because of that background.
Andel said canola yields are about two tonnes per acre, wheat is 3.5 tonnes, barley is 2.8 and silage corn is 20.
