Dutch precision agriculture firm Steketee has reported a 30% growth in sales for 2020 – in spite of the impact of Covid-19.
Part of the Lemken group since 2018, work is ongoing to “keep up with the rising demand for weed control solutions”, the machinery company says.
Iljan Schouten, Steketee’s managing director, said: “The trend towards integrated crop care is unstoppable.
There is strong demand for hoeing machines, ridgers and band spraying implements for reducing the use of pesticides.
To meet “high demand” for the 2021 spring season, Steketee and Lemken are setting up a new assembly line for small implements, “which will boost production capacities and most likely shorten delivery times”, the two firms say.
Image source: Marius Becker
The introduction of the two “Professional” and “Individual” product lines has made it easier to both create and process orders.
Explaining this, Steketee says the Professional line comprises of easily configurable hoeing machines for traditional row crops and row widths.
Schouten outlined: “With the Individual line, we retain our ability to meet individual customer requests thanks to a wide range of available options.
There is a clear trend towards customers demanding greater efficacy with larger working widths, with the IC-Light camera control delivering very high precision. This is where our 20 years of experience with camera-supported machine control really comes into its own.
Last year, the company says it also worked intensively on its after-sales. Spare parts are now documented in the Agroparts online portal and can be ordered from there.
Both dealers and end customers can order parts via this portal, and all popular spare and wear parts are available for express overnight delivery from the central warehouse.
Image source: Marius Becker
Steketee also outlined its new “space to grow” slogan, claiming that there is “space to grow” throughout the company’s entire value chain.
Schouten expanded on this, stating: “With our Steketee machines, we also want to enable our customers to prepare well for future societal and political demands.
That is, we want to create ‘space to grow’ for our farmers and contractors too. After all, we need to keep in mind that space to grow also forms the basis for healthy crops.
As a result, product development is progressing rapidly. The company is currently developing and trialling new plant recognition methods using artificial intelligence, Steketee concludes.