David Furber, who has extensive experience of the agricultural machinery industry and is highly regarded by those connected with it, has been appointed sales manager – UK and Ireland by Claydon Yield-o-Meter Limited, a pioneer of strip seeding technology with its Opti-Till® System.
“This is an extremely exciting time to join a company which has been at the forefront of changing the way in which agricultural crops are established for more than two decades. Claydon products are highly regarded for their quality, performance, reliability, and low ownership costs, so customers are very loyal to the brand,” says David, who was born into a Cheshire family with strong farming connections and still lives in the county.
“As farming businesses become larger and more reliant on key equipment, it is essential that they have a professional dealer locally to sell and support Claydon crop establishment machinery,” Mr Furber adds. “A key part of my role will be to work with our existing dealers to ensure that customers are fully supported and further strengthen our distribution network in areas where currently we are under-represented, particularly Scotland and Northern Ireland. This will benefit existing owners by providing more local points of contact and ensure that potential customers are made aware of the cost, timeliness, agronomic and environmental benefits of Claydon Opti-Till®.”
With both parents from farming families and his father an agricultural contractor in the Nantwich area it was no surprise that Mr Furber decided to make a career in the industry. In 1992, he joined Shropshire-based agricultural implement manufacturer Salopian Kenneth Hudson and was involved in designing drills. SKH was part of the Greenland Group and when the businesses merged with Ipswich-based Vicon Mr Furber became a service engineer for the company, supporting Vicon dealers and customers in in East Anglia.
Appointed Vicon Key account manager – Eastern Region in 1996, Mr Furber held the role for over five years. Norwegian-based Kverneland Group acquired Vicon in 1998 and three years later David was promoted to UK sales manager for Vicon, a position he held for 19 years until becoming UK sales manager for Kverneland Group in December 2020. Responsible for the Kverneland, Vicon and Kubota brands in the UK and Ireland, Mr Furber remained there until December 2022.
Sold across the World
Claydon is a progressive family-owned business and its Commercial Team, headed by commercial director Spencer Claydon, now sells products which are designed and manufactured at its fast-expanding UK factory to farmers in over thirty countries across four continents. Farming businesses of all sizes and types, including those in the dairy sector, increasingly recognise the financial, operational, and environmental benefits of the Claydon Opti-Till® System, which is designed by farmers for farmers.
With the industry under increasing financial pressures as the Basic Payment Scheme is progressively phased out, Claydon is ideally positioned to help producers transition from using slow, expensive, energy-intensive traditional methods to establish their crops to its Opti-Till® System. Providing significant opportunities to save fuel, labour, and money, it also provides massive improvements in timeliness, soil health and structure, whilst lowering carbon emissions, reducing soil erosion, and delivering other environmental benefits. The increasing focus on the accurate placement and more efficient utilisation of fertiliser for cost and environmental reasons further plays into the strengths of the Claydon brand.
At the heart of the Opti-Till® System, Claydon drills are available in mounted and trailed form from 3m to 8m wide. Their simple, robust design and great flexibility allows them to establish any crop that can be air sown in any type of soil. Able to handle autumn or spring sowing, cope with wet or dry conditions and apply fertiliser at drilling if required, they are accurate, dependable, and inexpensive to operate.
The Claydon range also includes Straw Harrows, which are available as 3m, 7.5m and 9m mounted versions or as 12.5m and 15m trailed models, the 6m TerraStar® light rotary cultivator and TerraBlade inter-row hoes from 3m to 8m wide which help growers to control weeds in band-sown crops more efficiently and more effectively than using chemicals alone, providing significant cost and environmental benefits.
Spencer Claydon states: “All of the Claydon team are delighted that David has joined us because his experience and expertise within the industry will be invaluable in further developing the market for Claydon Opti-Till® products and providing the best support for our customers.”
