Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 23 Mar 1960

Vol. 180 No. 7

Written Answers. - Imports of Agricultural Machinery.

34.

Mr. Desmond

asked the Taoiseach if he will state the value and give details of agricultural machinery, including tractors, imported during the past five years.

The Taoiseach

The following table shows the quantity and value of imports of agricultural machinery and agricultural tractors, according to Official Import List descriptions, in each of the years 1955 to 1959:—

Description	Unit of Quantity	Quantity	Value
1955	1956	1957	1958	1959	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
							£	£	£	£	£
Agricultural machinery and appliances:
For preparing and cultivating the soil:
Ploughs (including ridging ploughs)	No.	2,658	1,613	1,027	1,466	1,185	126,703	67,459	55,020	80,725	71,292
Harrows	,,	2,645	1,526	1,708	1,977	2,070	91,910	48,105	64,789	91,219	71,423
Farmyard manure spreaders and muck loaders	,,	1,073	408	461	426	533	121,385	44,415	48,044	48,317	74,477
Lime and fertilizer distributors	,,	457	367	297	334	632	32,079	24,377	21,840	20,018	34,487
Planting and seeding machines	,,	1,321	598	719	740	430	94,063	32,471	68,478	61,465	34,204
Land rollers	,,	373	294	271	194	123	11,076	6,908	7,508	6,950	4,376
Hoes, grubbers (including drill cleaners), mounted tool bars (with or without ridging bodies, cultivators or other fittings)	,,	909	825	244	253	86	28,231	21,805	13,431	14,327	3,435
Rotavators	,,	258	231	276	281	325	31,953	27,803	40,361	39,721	41,859
Other	cwt.	533	635	1,791	1,546	707	6,242	9,256	25,095	23,195	12,055
Plough parts	,,	14,686	15,341	14,672	17,998	14,921	97,735	105,881	106,801	142,305	123,839
Parts, n.e.s.	,,	6,343	4,704	6,230	6,572	10,725	75,647	60,040	78,499	79,899	143,382
For harvesting, threshing and sorting:
Combine harvesters	No.	484	308	867	585	427	421,958	255,602	791,816	559,885	391,979
Reapers and binders	,,	101	128	128	130	177	13,813	21,857	15,934	12,191	15,212
Threshing	,,	30	25	23	24	33	14,621	11,472	11,652	6,562	8,605
Potato diggers	,,	468	286	226	228	189	26,781	17,151	11,728	12,049	11,175
Beet lifters, toppers and cleaners	,,	99	20	33	37	9	8,998	7,918	5,849	9,189	2,467
Wheel rakes	,,	325	232	156	324	222	11,211	7,877	6,684	9,846	6,239
Side delivery rakes	,,	1,987	1,192	729	893	921	100,545	73,762	50,030	69,162	74,563
Mowing (excluding lawn mowers):
Hay	,,	2,054	1,647	1,362	1,631	2,220	129,542	107,136	82,063	95,714	143,302
Other	,,	718	433	100	458	415	45,651	28,325	6,546	24,933	20,574
Hay-saving, n.e.s.	No.	481	797	112	72	560	14,655	19,923	5,931	2,874	21,794
Loaders and balers (including elevators)	,,	1,534	380	416	554	422	198,026	96,149	94,282	147,563	96,830
Graders and sorters	,,	75	90	69	83	92	5,179	5,481	5,079	5,297	4,714
Other	cwt.	2,455	1,972	1,704	2,619	6,270	27,720	30,158	26,094	41,990	106,039
Parts	,,	7,954	7,533	6,827	7,985	8,348	152,362	149,458	153,329	180,044	180,178
Dairy farm equipment:
Milking	No.	558	635	1,603	1,511	383	28,522	40,194	55,150	68,003	30,355
Cream separators	,,	1,319	670	930	654	591	22,353	16,685	27,318	11,218	10,734
Churns	,,	7,301	1,678	4,502	5,834	1,884	24,509	6,765	14,040	21,667	12,088
Others	cwt.	482	307	293	173	165	16,159	10,543	9,359	4,489	6,559
Parts	,,	2,397	1,767	2,571	1,629	1,560	88,257	75,668	86,885	67,035	67,685
Incubators, brooders and hovers	No.	869	668	253	393	598	18,271	22,928	5,970	7,403	11,676
Agricultural sprayers	,,	1,331	1,700	935	906	1,497	35,957	36,546	19,059	26,290	27,217
Root-cutting	,,	72	135	58	38	34	874	2,336	910	824	1,074
Corn grinders and crushers (including hammer mills)	,,	299	294	370	737	484	15,976	11,262	19,735	35,378	35,867
Seed cleaners	,,	28	8	45	34	23	7,991	1,318	3,158	3,639	7,556
Lawn mowers	,,	11,328	8,908	5,622	7,465	10,703	63,917	51,304	33,098	40,435	55,932
Other n.e.s.	cwt.	3,715	2,635	3,934	2,823	2,615	61,299	44,789	70,923	54,474	60,852
Parts, n.e.s.	,,	7,896	5,799	3,996	6,792	6,792	111,510	84,992	76,391	93,295	114,816
Agricultural tractors	No.	4,651	2,501	4,009	4,130	4,174	1,949,053	1,063,894	1,793,383	1,780,244	1,877,149
TOTAL	value						4,332,734	2,750,013	4,012,262	3,999,834	4,018,060

n.e.s.=not elsewhere specified or included.