 Awesome. I hear you mentioned low horsepower, high horsepower machinery. What does that mean? What's the difference between low and high horsepower? So in the industry, you know, if you're working with the OEMs as an ACO, we tend to classify our machines by horsepower or kilowatts. Welcome everybody to the Farming Podcast, brought to you by Private Property. My name is Malin Walker and thank you so much for watching and listening to the podcast once again. Today's episode 128 and our topic for this evening is South African Agricultural Trade Show International. We're going to be speaking to an international company and a representative from the company who is involved in product marketing. So we're going to get to know a little bit about his role, what he does for the organization and take a deep dive into mechanization. So if oils and filters and tractors are your thing, I bet this podcast is for you. And if you're looking for a tractor, I believe also our conversation will assist you in just procuring the right machinery for your farm. Today we are joined by Ryan Clark, who's the product marketing manager of Massey Ferguson. Hi Ryan, thank you so much for joining us and welcome to the podcast. Hi Ambali, thank you very much for having me. It's great to talk to you and all the listeners out there. It's a pleasure, it's a pleasure. For those that don't know the organization Massey Ferguson, tell us a little bit of history around the organization. Right, so I'm sure most of your listeners will know that Massey Ferguson is probably one of the most famous tractor brands on the planet. Also very much loved in the African continent. We're very famous for low-washers, our new high-waist power machine, which is doing exceptionally well. And we've also got all kinds of planters, technology, hay-making business, bailing, combining, almost a one-stop shop for the full mechanization solution for farmers in South Africa. Awesome. I hear you mentioned low-horsepower, high-horsepower machinery. What does that mean? What's the difference between low and high-horsepower? So in the industry, you know, if you're working with OEMs as an ACO, we tend to classify our machines by horsepower or kilowatts. So a smaller tractor will generally have less power than a bigger tractor, and there's a category for each of them split roughly in about 10-horsepower segments. So you would have, let's say, the 30 to 90 horsepower is considered like very small machinery from 90 to about 140 horsepower. That's considered medium-sized tractors, and then from 140 horses and up, that's where the high technology and the larger machines start coming into play. And we manage each of those portfolios separately. Okay. So if I'm looking to procure a tractor, right, you mentioned low-horsepowers for the smaller machinery, high-horsepower has more technology, it's a bigger machinery. So maybe if you could give us just a rough idea to say, if you're looking for a low-horsepower, it can maybe cultivate a maximum of 10 hectares and high-horsepower maybe starts at X hectares. So if you could just break down the two so that when people are looking for tractors, they have an understanding of what is suitable for them. That's right, Mbali. I'm glad you pointed that out. Hectares are related to the amount of horsepower you need. So the larger the farm, the more horses you require. So the given rate depends obviously on the conditions of the farm. So depending on the climate that that farm is on and the crop that that farm is growing, that would determine how much horsepower is required per hectare. If you're running something like a 2 to 10 hectare-sized farm, you could get away with one small tractor. If you had a 1,500 hectares, you would need a lot of small machinery. Or you could go for three or four really big machines and do the same amount of work because the width of the plow is determined by how much power is required. So a large machine can pull a wider machine, a wider implement and therefore do more hectares per hour, where the smaller machine will do it in a much lesser time. But the speed is determining the farm size because you only have so much time to plant or so much time to harvest. And that's where the horsepower requirement is quite an important factor in planning your farm. Wow, that definitely makes sense. But take us through the sales process. And I can imagine investing in a tractor really needs a lot of thinking and planning through, in terms of how you're going to cultivate your land as a farmer, maximize your profits, etc. So take us through the sales process when I start walking into a messy Ferguson dealership. Do you just sell the person a tractor or do you take them, do you ask to go to the farms first and have an understanding of the crop, the seasons, on average how many times would they be using the tractor? Maybe take us through the sales process and what type of support does messy Ferguson also provide to its customers? Yeah, it's probably a good time to point out that at Echo we put the farmer first and a customer that would enter our showroom. The first thing we would need to establish is a needs analysis. The needs analysis is roughly to understand what the farmer needs to achieve within a certain timeframe. So sometimes this might be a five year planning, a 10 year plan, maybe a generational plan depending on what that farmer specifically needs. The other factor is what they plan to grow and how they plan to grow. So the typical messy Ferguson dealer or salesman will most likely not assist with a farming plan. They would most likely be able to assist with the mechanization plan. So it's important that you know when you start off, when you visit the dealership is exactly the amount of land that you plan to prepare. So a hector number is a good lead for a salesman to start as a foundation. After that, it would be important to understand what crop that the farmer intends to plant. Be it potatoes or maize or soya, that would determine a different cultivation plan. So depending on the crop and the hectors, the salesman would most likely then be able to assist the farmer with a prescription or a proposal of sorts of what would be the best combination of machine and implement. Some farmers obviously start from scratch and that would require almost an entire mechanization fleet, the machine, the planter, the plow, the whole dude. And other farmers would most likely already have something in terms of a tractor and a plow and we can perhaps just replace either of those components for that farmer depending on if they tend on expanding or just replacing current equipment. Yeah, it sounds like such a technical process but I heard you mention the word ACCO and where does Massey Ferguson fit in with ACCO? So ACCO is the mother company of Massey Ferguson. Massey Ferguson is a brand. ACCO owns the brand and also the facilities that manufacture Massey Ferguson. So if I could give anyone a good example of how ACCO fits into the picture, they own multiple brands all over the world. If the listeners know the fink brand, ACCO also owns fink, they also own the Valtra brand, they also challenge a brand and they also own sunflower, white plantas and a whole lot more all over the world. It's the largest agricultural company in the world and Massey Ferguson is a part of that ACCO family. Another way to look at it in a much more simpler sense is if you think of a brand like Volkswagen, which owns multiple car brands. So they own VW, they own Audi, they also own Lamborghini and Porsche and ACCO is very much the same thing where it owns multiple brands for multiple markets. And obviously Massey Ferguson is the family brand. That is fantastic. It's great to hear that there's a family brand because farming has a lot to do with generations and keeping everything still intact within the family. I just want to find out, Ryan, so what are the important things to consider when one needs to finance a tractor? So maybe explain the ACCO financing model, a process, what type of farmer do you finance and how can a farmer prepare for financing for their equipment? Financing in agriculture is a little bit different to the typical finance model where payability is considered one of the key elements as well as the securities that are involved. So major banks as well as ACCO finance, we will finance anybody that is willing to take on the package. This includes obviously a credit check and what the customer would have to bring along as bank statements and all the other requirements required for this finance application. And once that profile is created, we will obviously establish a deposit and a payment frequency and if the customers happily they sign and the finances approve. ACCO finance is affiliated with West Bank in South Africa, so it's not a crazy startup business. It's an established finance house and obviously open to anybody that's interested in using it. And talk about your dealership network. Are you only based in Johannesburg or do you have a footprint across the South African landscape in various geographical areas? How far and wide does ACCO or Massey Ferguson go out to? So currently at Massey Ferguson, we have a head office based in Johannesburg from where I'm speaking to you guys today. And we get free state and then we support a network of about 42 dealers countrywide. These dealerships are independently owned. It's an entrepreneurial model where anyone can basically sign a franchise agreement with ACCO, establish a floor plan and begin servicing the agricultural community in the area. And these dealers work very closely in a partnership model with ACCO in putting the farmer first and really assisting guys with their solutions on the market. Wow. What makes Massey Ferguson the most trusted brand? You did say it's a family brand. So how does Massey Ferguson compare and compete with other brands out there in the market? Well, apart from the nostalgia, I've always said I think of Massey Ferguson as like a zipper. It's kind of got a zipper cool element about it, but a lot to that is I think the longevity of the brand. Massey Ferguson is built to last. So it's often attractive that a young 20 something will buy and eventually he's his grandchild will inherit this machine. We've seen it in countless occasions across across Africa. The reason why these machines last generations is because of the quality of the product. These machines are very well designed, very well built to give many, many decades of good service. But also the maintainability of these machines. Parts are quite easily available. I always joke and say you can get Massey Ferguson parts at any fish and chip shop. And I think also the level of technical knowledge required to keep these machines going isn't that high. Because it's an ultimately a machine that was designed in the 50s. It's purely mechanical, almost zero electric. We normally call them a wire and pliers tractor with a bit of wire and some pliers. You could you could keep your Massey Ferguson going and obviously that wouldn't be the best way to maintain them. But yeah, they're designed to last forever. And the cost of ownership is really low that you can just pass them on to the to the grandchild or the first son. No problem. Great. Just taking a little bit back into our conversation Ryan, you mentioned law horsepower, high horsepower. There's different implements that one could also get within a Massey. What type of commodity in farming does Massey Ferguson cater to? Is a lot of the grain field like do you have combined harvesters, planters, four row planters, etc. Can also one use Massey Ferguson if they're farming vegetables, specifically crops like potatoes and onions that grow underground that are quite delicate and sensitive especially when harvesting. Or is it mostly the grain commodities like sunflower maize? So what type of commodity does your tractors and equipment cater for in various agri-commodities? I'd say pre-2019 the Massey Ferguson brand was heavily focused on the grain belt or grain sector. And that's mostly Central, Free State, Northern, Cozillimital, Western, Humalanga and Southern Limpoko. So it's a very centralised, oh the Northwest is also a large grain producing province. And Massey pretty much set itself up and catered specifically to the grain industry. But ACCO has taken over distribution in South Africa and we've been expanding the brand into, we started with vegetables. So with a Massey Ferguson tractor you can adjust the track widths, the crown clearances. You can almost tailor make a Massey Ferguson for each and every farm. We have now basically like vegetable spec tractors that you can buy off the shelf. These vegetable machines, they generally just have a narrow attire which is a little bit more higher in terms of ground clearance. They also have a little bit more upgraded hydraulics and electronics for the more advanced type of attachments that are used in the vegetable sector. But now we've also recently started getting into orchard industry. I'd say middle last year ACCO has made a big push into vineyards, orchards. These are berry producers, nut producers, fruit producers, these kinds of establishments. So where we're heading and heading fast is a Massey Ferguson will fit on any farm and suit any farmer's application. And that's the plan that we're heading towards. I think that's fantastic because every farmer is different and every farmer has different needs. And obviously with climate change there's so many different things that we're dealing with season after season. If you've just joined us we're speaking to Ryan Clark who's a product marketing manager of Massey Ferguson. And so far we've been speaking about tractors, how to finance them, how to purchase the right tractor and just what type of tractor speaks for you whether you're wanting a low horsepower or a high horsepower and how to break down the difference between the two and also how it feeds into the various hectares that you have at your farm. So if you have any questions or comments please feel free to comment and we'll make sure that we answer your question quite smoothly and so that you walk away having full knowledge of what it is we discussed today. Going back to our conversation Ryan, I see that you're a product marketing manager. A lot of the times when we talk about Agri we say we need more people in Agri but I think it's more farmers. The intention is trying to push more farmers. And I think we forget that there's a whole spectrum around the agricultural sector that needs a lot of other professionals to obviously promote products like the Massey Ferguson over and above just farming. So what does your role entail as a product marketing manager? It sounds like fun but maybe just tell us how you get the brand out there and how do you make it such a trusted brand over so many years? Just to speak to the youth factor. I started in the industry at about 21 and I was the youngest in the game. All the farmers were always older than me and my colleagues were older than me. It's been about 15 years and I'm still the youngest. Farmers are still older than me and my colleagues. I call on to all the listeners to get involved in agriculture. We are looking for young blood. It's always exciting when we meet young farmers and young sales guys. They just bring a different energy to the sector. The old ones are getting pretty old now so you need to start looking. But in terms of product marketing it is the most fun job in agriculture. I guarantee that. But what we generally do is we're the link between the farmer and the factory at the end of the day. So we gather as much local information and data as possible which we then summarize and almost on a weekly basis we share that with our factory. These changes get built into our farmer's first model and this is where new products and upgrades and facelift machines eventually come. So I get quite a kick out of it when I establish a need in a market. We define the need, we build it into a machine and a couple of months later it's actually introduced into that market. And the farmers get a feeling that they're being listened to, that their needs are being taken seriously. And I think that's why the brand has also been around for that long. We always consider the need first. Yeah, put the farmer first. But I know that you're in the forefront of technology as Massey Ferguson or Agco. What are the exciting things from a technology component that we could anticipate to see more so that now that NAMPO is around the corner. And I know that you're also going to be at NAMPO showcasing all your tractors and machinery. So what are the new exciting technologies that we can see in the tractors? And even when we visit Agco in the NAMPO stands, what can we expect to see on the fields? Barley, what we would love to express at NAMPO and to the visitors this coming event is we'd like to showcase the entire package. So if you're coming for a small tractor or even a big tractor, we should have everything you need or one display for the visitors. Things that will be really highlighted will be our new tier three common rail technology. Some of our medium sized machines will now have common rail technology. We'll show that to farmers as well as our new dual wet clutch. These are quite mechanical features. We also have new hydraulic systems, better improved hydraulic flows. And then I think where we will really shine is our Fuse technology, which is effectively one acre. And that's speaking to the precision farming of our business. So tractors that drive themselves, things like that. Wow, would you be doing any live demonstrations? We'll have a little stand that will actually show a fictitious tractor driving around in the field, but not the real picture. Unfortunately, our machines have to remain static during the show. Oh, wow. Looking forward to it. But Ryan, as we close off this podcast episode, I just want to find out where can we get in touch with you? Any website, any main email where people can maybe contact Acco or Massey Ferguson if they need to inquire around tractors, planters, implements, etc. Where can we get a hold of you and your team? An easy way to reach us is on Facebook. Just go to Massey Ferguson, South Africa on our Facebook and Twitter feeds. We also have a website which listeners can mail us at. It's AfricaSalesAtAccoCorp.com. It's AfricaSalesOneWord at AccoAGCO and then corpcorp.com. And then we also have the Massey Ferguson website, www.masseyfegerson.co.za. There the listeners will find the entire Massey Ferguson story, all the products and solutions that we offer. And as well a rapid lead system so a customer can make a direct inquiry with the dealership of their choice within 30 seconds. Wow, that's amazing. They also receive video, footage, pictures as well as a brochure within that 30 second form. So if anyone's interested in something specific or a broader range, please make contact with us via those three channels. And we will get back to you as soon as possible. Awesome. Thank you so much, Ryan, for such an insightful conversation and an educational one. I mean, you know, it's gone are the days where you just think you need a tractor. There's so many technical parts that you need to think through, right? So that your farm can grow. But yeah, thank you for your time this afternoon. And yeah, I hope to see you there at NAMPO. Onward. Everyone else, please come and join us. Awesome. That was Ryan Clark, who's a marketing product manager for Massey Ferguson, a division of AgCo. And he spoke about tractors, machineries, planters, technology. They stand at NAMPO, what you can expect to see. And just having a deep dive in terms of the technical components that one needs to think through before purchasing a tractor. Understanding your farm planning, your farm requirements and we broke down the various commodities in which a Massey Ferguson tractor can obviously cultivate or plow or just be equipped with as a farmer. So, yeah, Ryan did share his details at the end of our conversation. Please go to their Facebook page. I think that is the most easiest one. Massey Ferguson, South Africa. Speak to them directly if you have any questions. And I'm sure they'll be in touch with you, like he said, within 30 seconds. Thank you so much for watching the podcast episode. I'll see you again next time. Take care.