For anyone wanting to see new equipment in the flesh, the machinery show season kicks off with a bang next week. Yes, it’s the LAMMA show at the Newark showground, Nottinghamshire on 19 and 20 January, with more than 600 stands and now reckoned to be the biggest machinery event in the UK.

Can’t make it to Newark? A couple of smaller machinery shows could be of interest, too. The first of these is the Agricultural Machinery and Equipment Show on 2 February at the Bath and West showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset.

This is the second year of the AMES event and the organisers say that interest is building nicely. The event is free to enter and also includes seminars and short talks on renewable energy.

Meanwhile, if you fancy Paris in the (early) spring, the SIMA show will be happening at Villepinte on the north side of Paris from 20 to 24 February. Some 1300 exhibitors are booked in. The following month farmers in the south-east get a chance to come to the first Agri-Expo SE machinery show at the Kent County Showground, at Detling near Maidstone on 1 March. This free-to-enter event is organised by the RAMSAK machinery ring and the organisers say that interest from the machinery industry has been very strong.

What with the daddy-of-them-all (2300 exhibitors) – Agritechnica – also taking place this year on 15-19 November (with preview days on 13 and 14 November), 2011 promises to be a vintage year for machinery shows.

And that’s even before you include the other regular events that allow farmers to view machinery either static form or working, like Grassland and Muck 2011 (18 and 19 May, Bath and West Showground), Cereals 2011 (15 and 16 June, Leadenham, Lincolnshire), the Dairy Event and Livestock show (6 and 7 September, NEC) and Tillage 2011 (September).