Club of bologna proceedings

Sandro LIBERATORI 
We spoke about the mineral fertilisers before. 
But we chose the Danish station because they 
have the equipment to make many many tests in 
a very short time. And it’s the only testing sta-
tion equipped to do this in Europe. So of course 
there are many different types of fertilisers that 
are used in Europe, and therefore we need a te-
sting station that is well equipped and can do 
the test very quickly in order to use as many 
types of fertilisers as possible. So we choose a 
standard test, using some kinds of fertilisers and 
some options. And the options can be as many 
as the manufacturers wants, in order to test all 
the types of fertilisers that are used in Europe. 
And for us such a test is very difficult because in 
Italy we don’t have equipment like the have in 
Denmark, and it would be too expensive to test 
all the kinds of fertilisers in Italy. It is much 
cheaper to go to Denmark and do the tests the-
re.
 
Richard HEGG 
Let me respond briefly to the question from the 
U.S. perspective. This is not my background a-
rea - but much of what Prof. McKay said is very 
similar to situation in the United States. From 
the tractor standpoint there is testing, but from 
the equipment standpoint there are liability si-
tuations. So that if a manufacturer produces e-
quipment that is defective structurally, or from a 
safety standpoint, we have many lawyers in the 
United States who are happy to undertake pro-
ceedings in order to satisfy the customer. So the 
industry has to be in a position to respond to 
that. Consequently the equipment manufacturers 
will in many cases do their testing on the farm 
or in conjunction with the farmer. And if the e-
quipment goes out, has problems or corrections 
that need to be made, the manufacturer will of-
ten follow up and make those corrections - pro-
bably on a no cost basis because you’re at the 
initial stages of that equipment. I just wanted to 
amplify on that. 
 
Uri M. PEIPER 
While visiting a testing station in Canada. I a-
sked them: how do you manage to produce such 
beautiful test reports? - because they really ha-
ve beautiful test reports, and the man said to 
me, well that’s very easy. For six months of the 
year we cannot go outside, we cannot go out of 
the room! So for half a year we have time to 
prepare beautiful test reports on the work we do 
during the other half of the year. And with this I 
close this session of testing of agricultural ma-
chinery. Let us give a big hand to the speakers 
and thank all of the participants. And now Mr. 
President the floor is yours. 
 

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