The long-term outlook for the machinery industry is strong, according to Tractor and Machinery Association of Australia (TMA) chairman, Michael Armstrong.
In particular he's buoyed by the underlying fundamentals, particularly a raft of non-governmental organisation reports that suggest by the year 2025 – just fifteen years down the track – there will be a global necessity for food production to be hiked by a staggering 50 percent and more than doubled by 2050.
"From a supply and demand point of view those are the figures which are always going to drive commodity prices," Mr Armstrong said.
"So as long as we have water, access to machinery and equipment, then the underlying outlook for the farm machinery industry is strong."
Interestingly, as a tyre supplier the current TMA chairman and principal of Armstrong Tyres, is in an ideal position to track how Australia's farm equipment industry is travelling.
"Being in the supply group category, we act as something of a barometer for the industry," Mr Armstrong said.
"We can't do business unless farmers are busy."
His company's strong business performance during the 2008/09 business year gives him the confidence to reinforce the relative economic health of Australia's farm equipment business.
This is backed up by recent TMA figures showing that tractor sales for the first four months of 2009 remain at encouraging levels.
The farm machinery industry's recent good sales fortune has to be seen in the context of different parts of Australia succumbing to drought-like conditions in the course of any one season.
"That's not to say things may take a little bit of a dip later but it's safe to say, for now, that if any economic tightening is going to impact on our industry, then it would have been felt by now," Mr Armstrong said.
"From my point of view, however, it’s all go."
That's a reference to his third-generation status as an exclusive importer and wholesaler of tractor tyres and wheels.
Conceding that many users still over-looked the worth of tyres in their farming systems, principally seeing them as "round and black" but, nevertheless "doing a good job", the challenge is to make sure they aren't overlooked when purchasing new equipment.
The trend towards radial tractor tyres is "absolute" when their benefits are stacked up against more traditional bias-ply tyres.
"I can't think of too many premium brands of tractor out of Europe and North America that doesn't come equipped with radial tyres," Mr Armstrong said.
Citing how racing drivers agree that tyre choice is one of the most important factors in performance, he says similar analogies can be made for agriculture.
"Flowing on from that, the area where a farmer has the greatest potential to increase horsepower-to-the-ground, plus reduce soil compaction, is in the area of tyre technology."
Greater awareness about the trend toward wider, larger, lower air capacity tyres that are better able to reduce their operational foot print today is being demonstrated across corporate agriculture, according to Mr Armstrong.
Meanwhile, another challenge facing tyre distributors remains the proliferation in sizing.
"Twenty years ago 20 sizes would have covered 75 percent of tractors coming into the country," Mr Armstrong said.
"Today 200 sizes probably don't cover 60 percent of the market."
For this reason, tyre manufacturers are continually under the pump trying to play catch-up with the hugely-diverse range of tractors currently sold throughout Australia.
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