Arable Farmer Focus: Tractor theft prompts security review for Robert Law
I must first thank senders of the numerous positive messages that I have received about the Cereals 2010 event, which have come from an enormous geographical area ranging to Northern Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain and even Australia.
The damp weather did nothing to affect people’s euthusiasm either. Many said they struggled to get around the whole event in two days, such was the quality and depth of content there.
Since the event I have not had a single whinge about the park-and-ride, with most saying how well it went and that the organisers need to be congratulated. The site now looks like a desert following the heatwave and a visit by the local metal detecting club last weekend in search of any spillages from the 25,300 visitors to the site; their efforts yielded a nil return. I did tell them that all the hospitality at the event was FOC and little cash changed hands.
For us at Chrishall Grange, we had a rather large black cloud appear two weeks before the event and that was the theft from our yard of one of our tractors, which was barely a month old. It was a professional job and had the hallmarks of being meticulously planned. For us all it has been a massive wake-up call. At first our insurers were not wishing to accept liability, but after a month of negotiations we have now agreed a satisfactory settlement, subject to several conditions.
The upshot of all this is that we are now implementing a large range of security measures to both our vehicles and yards/buildings where all the equipment is being kept. Several of my neighbours are doing likewise; insurers attitudes are now changing and with many tractors costing six figures, the security on these machines is woefully inadequate.
Manufacturers have not grasped the nettle yet and buyers are going to have to add extra security measures to their purchases now, as well as reading the small print in their insurance policies.
