Pruning olive groves with electric tools

Pruning task is essential for the development of the olive grove and therefore for a profitable production. The olive grove must be pruned once the cold weather conditions are saved, and no frost days are expected, then, this task is normally carried out in March, although this task can also vary according to the weather and therefore the area. In our case, we are finishing the task, which is undoubtedly one of the hardest we have throughout the year in our olive grove.

We are carrying out different types of pruning as the olive trees require it. The 4 years old olive trees still need to be pruned to create the definitive tree. In this case, the pruning is not very aggressive and consists of shaping the olive tree. For older olive trees, the aim of pruning is to remove wood so that the olive tree can have more air and sunlight, which in the end is something fundamental in the development of the olive tree throughout its life.

The use of tools in this pruning task is based on shears and saws, although the power system is very wide-ranging, from hand tools without any power system, petrol chainsaws (increasingly smaller and therefore more manageable), pneumatic tools and finally and most modern we take into account electric tools. Over the last few years in our pruning work we have gone all the way and worked with all types of tools, this year being the first year that we have used  electric tools... we can conclude that this is the best option in our experience because they are the most comfortable to use.

In December we used the Agritec Flora PC32 electric shears for vineyard pruning and this time we have increased the blade size using the Agritec Flora PC38. The great feature of this model is the size of the bite, which goes up to 40mm, this feature is very important for pruning olive groves because they have generally large diameter branches. In addition to the scissors, we have also worked with the Agritec Flora PCP100 electric saw, which has surprised us a lot because with the 10cm rapier it allows the user to cut really thick branches with amazing ease... you can see it at the end of our video.

What tools do you use and do you do something different?

Versión en español.

Rainfall in 2021

As usual, once a year, we show you annual rainfall data for our area. These data are very located (La Alberca de Záncara - Cuenca), but we think that the precipitation pattern could be applicable to the central area of Spain (the northern and southern zones have considerably more rainfall throughout the year).  

As a preview, the year 2021 can be considered an extraordinarily good year in terms of rainfall, as it rained a lot and very well... unfortunately, we suffered from the Filomena storm, which was lethal for the olive groves in our area. In terms of rainfall, it started raining in January and it didn't stop until the beginning of the summer and then it started raining again in September until the end of the year. With a total of 490 mm, it is above the average of the last 21 years (468 mm). October was the wettest month (74 mm) and we were able to sow in perfect weather. During the months of April and May a very good cereal harvest was generated, one of the best in living memory, with historic yields.

If we focus on rainfall by season, we see that spring is once again the rainiest time of the year and, as the saying goes, "April and May make the harvest", the harvest was really good for cereals and pulse vegetables.

The year 2022 has started rather timidly in terms of rainfall, with January and February being very dry. We have been fortunate that March has started with a lot of rain (43mm in March and 71mm in 2022) and so far the crops have remained spectacular...  it is still too early to talk because there are still many nights before the combine harvester starts working.

Versión en español.

Sales of new agricultural machinery during 2021, in Spain

As is the tradition every year, we show the data of the sales of new machinery in Spain during 2021, these data are extracted from the information published by the Ministry of Agriculture (the information is published monthly, you can see this information from here). It is a summary of the most interesting data in our opinion. In general, the figures are better than in 2020, so we consider it a good year for new machinery sales.

The number of new tractors sold has increased to 11,672 units with respect to 2020 although it has not reached the figures for 2019 (10,676 units in 2020 and 12,156 units in 2019). This figure remains at around the 10,000 new tractors sold annually which is usually the reference figure for many manufacturers, so it is within the expected pattern and can therefore be said to be a good year as far as new tractor sales are concerned. Therefore, the sale of new tractors is back to pre-pandemic figures, while for second-hand tractors, 28,069 tractors have been surpassed in 2021 (22,915 units in 2020 and 29,736 units in 2019).

New tractor sales by brand continue to be led by John Deere (2,351 units in 2021, 2,429 units in 2020 and 2,972 units in 2019) and New Holland (1,736 units in 2021, 1,403 units in 2020 and 2,021 units in 2019). The news is that this year CNHi wins the lead in sales by business group. In terms of new tractor sales by brand, we would like to highlight the increases of Deutz-Fahr and Kubota. Next you can see in the graph the sales by brand:   

On the other hand, another interesting fact is the best-selling brand in terms of average power where Fendt continues to lead the market for another year with 187 hp/tractor (188 hp/tractor in 2020 and 178 hp/tractor in 2019). One of the data that catches our attention is the fall in the ranking of Deutz-Fahr (a brand focused on high-horsepower, technological and premium tractors), which has around 75% of its sales in the 5 Series and lower models. You can find more information in the following tables:   

Regarding the best-selling tractor in 2021, you can see the next ranking:

• John Deere 6155M: 290 units.
• John Deere 6120M: 259 units.
• New Holland T4 100: 224 units.
• New Holland T4 110: 190 units.
• John Deere 6195M: 171 units.
• New Holland T5 115: 163 units.
• Deutz-Fahr 5100 4D: 148 units.

Some more interesting facts about the sale of new tractors:

• The average price of a new tractor sold has been estimated by the Ministry at 61,456 € (58,830 € in 2020 and 48,993 € in 2017).
• The average power of a new tractor sold in Spain is around 119 hp (117 hp in 2020 and 113 hp in 2019). The average power of the total Spanish fleet is 70 hp.
• 50% of the new tractors sold are of the narrow and specialist type, namely 5,466 units.

Regarding new farming machinery sales in 2019, we would like to show a chart where you can see monthly sales. You have data about tractors, trailers, tillage machinery, seed drills, mowers or harvesting machinery, etc. We would like to mention that a total amount of 35,633 new machines were sold in 2021 (32,204 units in 2020 and 35,430 units in 2019) which implies a significant rise from the previous year for almost all types of machinery and recovery to pre-pandemic figures.

We highlight the following data about new farming machinery sales:  

• New trailers sales: 3,818 units in 2021, 3,834 units in 2020 and 3,506 units in 2019.
• Regarding trailed or mounted machinery:
• Soil tillage machinery: 3,122 units in 2021, 2,914 units in 2020 and 2.990 units in 2019.
• Seed drills machinery: 1,011units in 2021, 932 units in 2020 and 971 units in 2019.
• Crop protection machinery: 7,650 units in 2021, 6,234 units in 2020 and 7,158 units in 2019.
• Spreaders and fertilizing machinery: 2,596 units in 2021, 2,254 units in 2020 and 2,175 units in 2019.
• Harvesters’ machinery: 2,062 units in 2021, 2,174 units in 2020 and 2,020 units in 2019.

Some more interesting facts about the sale of new machinery are below:

• Winner of direct seed drills: Gil with 125 units.
• Winner of conventional seed drills: Aguirre with 26 units.
• Winner of precision planters: Solá with 45 units.
• Winner of hydraulic sprayers: Aguirre with 296 units.
• Winner of atomisers: Mañez y Lozano with 783 units.
• Round baler winner: Krone with 64 units.
• Big baler winner: New Holland with 88 units.
• Winner Slurry Distributor: Gili with 172 units.

Apart from that, we have to give special mention to the new combine harvesters sold in Spain which in 2021 was 279 units compared to 216 units in 2020 and 201 units in 2019. This year, Claas and New Holland share first place. The barrier of 300 units sold is still far away year after year.  This sector is completely monopolized by Claas and New Holland (102 units) and John Deere (41 units) although John Deere is losing market share. It should also be noted that the rest of the manufacturers, although sales are symbolic, Deutz-Farh and Fendt stand out this year with 27 units sold between them.

We want to give a special mention about sales of self-propelled grape harvesters, which this year are up on previous years as 135 new units have been sold (111 units in 2020 and 107 units in 2019). Once again, New Holland leads the market with 63% of sales. We can conclude that the market has been stable for several years with around 100 new units sold. We think that this is a good amount so we think the wine and olive sectors are sectors with great potential.  

Other graphs on new tractor sales:

Finally, we show you a few of our friend Julián's John Deere 6145R pictures... no lack of detail!!  Enjoy it with many working hours!!

Versión en español.