When you think of big, powerful companies at national and international levels, you think of PLCs which need to satisfy a Board of Directors.

In the agricultural industry, however, there are many family businesses leading the market in their disciplines.

One such example is Krone machinery, manufactured and based in northern Germany.

Bernard Krone, the fourth-generation chief executive, is now leading a company which has a presence in most continents.

They enjoy a link up with other family businesses and one of them is Farmhand in Ireland, their Irish distributors.

They in turn have selected four business to become dealers and stockists of their leading grass harvesting machines, and one of them is Irwin Brothers, Magheraveely, Fermanagh.

The others are McMullen Agri, Armoy, Co, Antrim; Tom Shaw Farm Machinery, Birr, Co., Offaly and Jim Power Agri Sales, Tallow, Co. Waterford.

They in turn are a successful family business, selling tractors and machinery.

They recently held open evenings for the Krone BiG X range of forage harvesters where machinery designers and experts were on hand to answer questions from those attending.

At the Focus Evening at Irwin Brothers, Paul Scrivener, Managing Director of Farmhand, explained that his grandfather established the business in Ireland in the early 1960s and worked with Bernard Krone, grandfather of the present head of the manufacturing business, Bernard.

That business friendship blossomed and continues today with Farmhand distributing a wide range of Krone products as well as other popular machinery, from their base at Damastown, near Dublin to around 30 dealers across the island.

Paui said both Krone and Farmhand are family-owned and run businesses and many of their dealers are also family businesses, such as the Irwin Brothers.

Stephen, Neville and John Irwin are all involved in the business near Magheraveely, where they sell a range of tractors and new and used machinery.

Their interest in machinery began as agricultural contractors but stopped that to concentrate on selling tractors and farm machinery, acquiring the agency for some of the leading brands.

Their impressive yard had two of the flagship Krone BiG X forage harvesters on view at the Focus evening, the BiG X wide body and BiG X 630 narrow body.

These forage harvesters have engines ranging from 630hp to 1180hp, with the larger machines largely used by farm contractors.

Among the features of the BiG X are the varistream to deliver blockage-free, smooth flow of heavy crops of grass; how the operator can adjust the blow from the cab, six feed rollers applying 4.5tonnes of pressure to the crop and a 4-wheel drive and rear steering axle with spring suspension.

There is a deal on at present where all Krone self-propelled machines ordered before December 1 come with full manufacturer three-year warranty, with % finance available on BiG X

Any BiG M450 mowers ordered before December 1 will come with a free upgrade to full autosteer.

There was plenty of interest at the Focus Evening with contractors and farmers travelling from across a wide area.