With winter cereal drilling complete and all herbicides applied on his land at Dungiven, Northern Ireland, James Wray took the opportunity to visit Germany's Agritechnica machinery event last week with his local contractor Ryan Boggs.
"We flew out to Hanover on Tuesday, and the show was incredible," he said. "The scale of things was mind-blowing. I've never seen so much kit in one place.
"The trip really emphasised the fact that we are really ‘flower-pot' farming here in Northern Ireland.
"The scale of farming over there is massive, with 800 acre fields being sown with 18m self-propelled drills and sprayed by 10,000litre triple-axle self-propelled machines.
"The size of both tractors and combines belong to another world."
Although the experience was impressive the amount of relevant information to be conveyed back to Co Londonderry was limited, he admitted.
"So father was glad to hear that no deals were done and new machines ordered, and I shall have to stick to our ‘Mickey Mouse-scale' kit."
Machinery maintenance is now the main task as most of his 4000t of potatoes remain in store.
"We've sold just 100t locally. Farmers with dodgy crops or inadequate storage are pushing spuds onto the market which is holding prices down. So it's a waiting game for us."
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