Disappointing news for anyone planning to call onto the JCB and John Deere stands at the popular German show next year. Both companies have decided not to attend the rescheduled event in Hanover. The good news is that all the other major tractor brands, such as Case IH, Claas, Fendt, Kubota, Massey Ferguson and New Holland, will be there.

John Deere issued a press release in February this year to announce its withdrawal from all machinery shows due to the pandemic. This included Agritechnica 2021, which at that stage was still on the cards for November, and should have started this weekend. It was not to be and show organiser DLG (German Agricultural Society) postponed the event for four months at the end of March.

The new dates from February 27 to March 5, 2022, are not to everyone’s liking. This is the time of the year when farmers and contractors will be back in the fields and many buying decisions will have been made. Pressurised by exhibitors, this is the reason why the French SIMA show has moved from its traditional February/March slot to November (6-10, 2022); dates which clash with the Italian EIMA show (November 9-13, 2022).

Travel restrictions caused by the pandemic continue to linger and visitor numbers are likely to be down on the 450,000 that passed through the turnstiles at Agritechnica 2019. JCB and John Deere have must have concluded they cannot justify the hefty investment costs of attending the show this time round.

The DLG expects roughly 2,000 exhibitors (2,820 in 2019) to attend Agritechnica 2022. They will fill 21 halls (23 in 2019) on an exhibition area of 378,000m² (390,000m² in 2019). Next year’s edition will not break any records, but it will still be a huge show.

Big names committed to Agritechnica 2022 include Amazone, Grimme, Horsch, Kuhn, Krone, Kverneland, Lemken, Pöttinger and Väderstad.

It is a shame that JCB and John Deere will not be there, but if it is tractors you are keen to see then the current exhibitor list includes AGCO (Fendt, Massey Ferguson and Valtra) in hall 20, Same Deutz Fahr in hall 4, Argo Tractors (McCormick and Landini) in hall 7, CNH Industrial (Case IH, New Holland and Steyr) in hall 3 and Kubota in hall 5.

Claas will also be present, but then not at its normal stand in hall 13. Instead, it has booked the four Expo Pavilions in the middle of the exhibition grounds. Rostselmash will occupy its usual stand in hall 9, but Zetor and Belarus are missing from the list.