Contractor and Fendt machinery dealer celebrates 50 years in business

The enterprise has seen some huge changes in farming too as managing director Martin Ross, who joined the family business in 2000, explained.

“Farming has changed, machinery has changed and technology has brought the biggest fundamental changes to agriculture in the 50 years we have been in business. I have had to adapt the service we offer our customers to react to the way technology is influencing farming,” he said.

Working with Fendt, he has had to adjust to the speed of change faster than most. The AGCO group premium brand has been at the forefront of pioneering agricultural technology and has expected its dealers to keep pace.

“When I started, there were three questions I would ask a customer to specify on a new tractor. Do you want front linkage, how many spool valves do you need, and what tyres would you like? Now, I may as well be speaking a foreign language to some customers, if I were to list off all the various options that are available to them,” he said.

There is no doubt the development of new technology is helping agriculture to be more sustainable and productive. However, Martin also recognised the impact this has had on the business and how it has challenged him, and his staff, to deliver an ever-diversifying range of services to their customers.

“Our customers are having to run tractors for longer hours to see the return on the ever-increasing investments they are expected to make. It is our job to make sure these hours are as stress free as possible. We are fortunate to have the Fendt franchise that offers 8000 hour warranties, but, with the cost of tractors almost doubling in 20 years, many are looking for fixed costs to help manage their farming enterprises.”

Used Fendt tractors, with as many as 10,000 hours, are supplied with 12-month warranties, which Mr Ross suggested represented a shared commitment between manufacturer and dealer to deliver on their promises.

The service level expectation has seen Martin invest in staff who specialise in the technology that has come to control the latest machines. However, this is not to the detriment of skilled engineers who offer welding and fabrication at Ross Agri Services’ St Cyrus base.

“Selling premium brands is one thing. We are never going to be the cheapest and we are often unapologetic about being the most expensive. The value is in the aftersales service.

"We pride ourselves on being able to offer our customers a one stop shop, everything from manufacturer trained diagnostics to CNC precision engineering.

"It is a challenge to move at the speed that technology is pushing agriculture, but we have made it our mission to work with the best brands and give our customers the support they need,” he concluded.

History of the company

The company was set up by Martin’s father, Bill, in 1972, who according to his son ‘has tractors built into his DNA’.

Originally a TV engineer then as a telephone engineer, Bill got to know many of the farms in the Dundee area. At the young age of 21, he took on some sheds which were being sold off by Ecclesgreig Estate, near St Cyrus, and started in business. With the help of his future wife, Ethel, their first job was selling muck left in the cattle shed, going for 12/6d (65p) per bag to Montrose residents.

Then, in 1972, the couple set up Ross Agri Services with the first job helping to lay telephone cables via mole-ploughing. To do this, Bill bought a Ford Major tractor for £150.

The next area they moved into was hiring out rotary dung spreaders which required the purchase of a John Deere EP25 for £900. The business was so successful in the early years that they were soon up to 15 rotary spreading machines available for hire.

In 1976, the company decided to focus more on farmer customers and dropped the cable laying.

Through collaboration with Clarence Murray, a Laurencekirk potato merchant, Bill and Ethel built up the equipment needed for tatties. First was the purchase of a Ford 7000, then a John Deere 2130.

Summer work was taken up with silage making using Fella forage wagons then later a John Deere 3960 forager. This was then replaced with a Mengele SH3ON which in turn was replaced with a Claas S/P forage harvester.

After silage work, the contracting business turned to harvest and baling straw. This meant Bill bought three Massey Ferguson four foot balers. Sowing was done by a 4m Kuhn power harrow with a mounted DL drill.

The company continued to grow and was eventually offered the Volvo BM Valmet franchise in 1984. In 1987, Bill bought his first Fendt tractor and he was so impressed with the manufacturer the following year he was awarded the franchise. Since then, the partnership between Ross Agri and Fendt tractors has gone from strength to strength.

What's been the biggest changes you’ve seen since you started?

The biggest movement in the tractors since I started selling more than 20 years ago has been advances in GPS and technology – GPS and autosteer.

I remember my first steering system for a Fendt 936. We sold it for £25,000 in 2008 which was around a quarter of the value of the tractor. This was the full RTK with its own base station so it was the best of kit. But the same system today on farm would be around £8000.

Back in 2008, we were just starting to look at auto guidance and we went onto sell two or three kits per year at the start. But today, 95% of tractors we sell will go out the door with some form of GPS installed.

Engine development has also come on leaps and bounds in the last 10 to 20 years. Fuel consumption has been reduced and Ad Blu has come on the scene. But this often comes at a cost to the end user.

We are saving on diesel but tractors cost … a lot more on the back of engines being more expensive to make. It might reduce the carbon footprint but it will be more expensive for the end user.

What new technology is coming?

There are a lot of different technologies now available for powering tractors but I am going to buck the trend and predict we won’t completely phase out diesel tractors.

My gut feeling is they will devise different forms of carbon neutral diesel.

Electric tractors may have a place but the batteries are just too big for machines with the power our farmers are used to. If you ran a Fendt 942 on electric you would need to tow a trailer full of batteries weighing about 15 tonnes.

Driverless tractors will definitely have a place, but my honest opinion is they won’t take over from human operators entirely. In future, you could see one of these driverless tractors on a big farm or estate but there will also need to be conventional tractors too.

The technology is not there to do some of the jobs on the terrain we have in Scotland. For instance, ploughing on stony ground would be a challenge for a driverless machine.

The technology is a bit away to be able to sort the plough if a stone gets stuck in against the skimmer board or similar. But for simple drilling operations or rolling, then there will be a place for driverless machines.

How has the second-hand market changed?

The second-hand price of tractors has risen significantly in recent years and at the moment second-hand value has been dragged up with the price of new ones.

Despite high prices it probably hasn’t kept up enough with the new machines. The exchange rate is making it more expensive to take stock in to the UK. This is creating a huge demand for second hand tractors with low hours and machinery thanks to the bottle neck from the factory.

How has the demand for machinery repairs altered?

It has been getting busier and busier for our engineers on tractor repairs and services.

Modern tractors pretty much all need to be connected to diagnostic software. Gone are the days of taking spanners and some sockets and you could fix most problems.

This means it is very difficult for sole traders to survive. We like to support tractors as they work on the farm, which means when it comes for sale we are more confident to buy them back, knowing the service history.

As a dealership we can then control the quality of the tractors we stock. As a result, we can sell on tractors with 10,000 hours on the clock and give a year’s warranty, knowing the history.

How has financing changed?

The number of years people are taking finance is stretching with some three year deals moving to five years.

We are also doing a few more rental agreements with contractors. This works well if the user is doing 2000-plus hours on the tractor per year.

What's the future of dealerships?

The network of dealers in the UK is likely to contract. The finance required to set up a new dealership makes it difficult for new players to come in.

The big manufacturers are looking for a detailed business plan and within the plan there is a requirement for significant free cash to fund the business.

Going forward, if the older generation have no succession plans then I am not sure if there will be the new businesses springing up. I feel existing dealers will get larger.

For us here, I have three sons with my eldest, Callum, 18, already working in the business. Succession planning is a big part of our plans and Fendt’s plans, and if I didn’t have anyone coming on after me, they would view our business very differently.