A southern NSW manufacturer of chaser bins and fertiliser spreaders is among the Australian farm machinery makers now riding the wave of a big spike in demand.
Coolamon Spreaders is churning out chaser bins, large capacity and compact spreaders and combination spreader chaser bins.
The company's NSW and Victoria regional sales manager Shane Cummins said the Federal Government's instant depreciation deduction incentives allowing small and mid-sized businesses to spend up to $150,000 on equipment had stimulated the demand.
Plant investments worth more than $150,000 qualify for a one-off 50 per cent depreciation claim against a regional business or farmer's taxable income until July 2021, he said.
Mr Cummins paid tribute to the Federal Government for assisting small business, farmers and manufacturing during the challenging times of COVID-19.
"Small businesses like Coolamon in manufacturing form a critical part of the food chain," he said.
Mr Cummins said the stimulus packaged combined with the turnaround in the seasonal outlook had created heavy demand for the company's range of spreaders and chaser bins.
"All of NSW and Victoria without exception, the crops are in and up and running," he said.
"We had a massive month in May in terms of sales from Goondiwindi to Geelong. Focus has shifted from livestock feeding to urea application.
"The instant asset write-off and improved seasonal outlook is driving a lot of our sales."
Mr Cummins said there was a swing towards large capacity trailed spreaders for urea application.
"One of our strong points is we are now accredited to 36m with urea, which is driving a lot of sales because people can see the benefits of the huge efficiency gains of a high capacity hopper trailing spreader," he said.
"As the Coolamon spreader can spread most other products on farms, it is not a three point linkage granular spreader any more - it can do lime, gypsum, manure, urea and single super.
"One tractor, one GPS and one spreader to do more than one job."
"COVID-19 has brought Australian made machinery to the fore - we are hearing that from our producers," he said.
"We live in a different world to what we did six months ago but it has brought Australian made, Australian grown to the front.
"After sales backup and service on machinery manufactured overseas is just that much harder these days.
"The general market sentiment is let's make sure our food is safe and is coming from a secure supply chain, and that is transmitting into the machinery sector.
"As an Australian manufacturing business coming out of COVID, from an employee's perspective, I believe Coolamon was on the front foot from day one.
"The company had systems in place from the start and was proactive in their measures.
"Now with the increased tax incentive from the Federal Government and favourable seasonal outlook, we are set up to sell out of stock pretty smartly."
