<title tag> Used Tractors: Red Tractor

<title> The Red Tractor

<subhead> New and used tractor lovers alike cannot failed to have noticed that the new century has brought with it a new revered respect for tractors in the form of a the new symbol for food assurance – The Red Tractor. Below we examine what the Red Tractor represents and how it raises the recognition of tractors and the British farming industry in general.

The Red Tractor – the symbol of British Farm Standard

The Red Tractor symbol was launched in 2000 by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, as a way of standardising the different "farm assured" claims that the farmers were working to and promoting British farm products. It was born out of the difficult times in the 1990’s, sparked by the BSE crisis. Cheap imported produce had begun to dominate the market and the Red Tractor was launched as a means of bringing the consumers back to the British farmed produce. Broadly the Red Tractor aims to reassure customers that:

The food they buy has come from independently inspected farms, suppliers and packaging processes

The food has been produced in a British farm

The welfare of the animals meets a certain standard

The farmers have worked in harmony with the environment surrounding them

The supermarkets and shops where this produce can be purchased is reassured that the produce has achieved this standard

Surveys conducted at the time suggested that consumers were in need of an easily recognised symbol which assured them that the food they were buying could be traced back to a British farm and that this producer had passed the Red Tractor standard inspections. A tractor is for many people a reassuring image of the countryside which is associated with farming. The red, blue and white colours and the logo’s background of the union jack are easily identifiable with Britain. The surveys confirmed what many of us tractor-lovers have always known – the tractor is seen as a sound, reassuring image.

At JR Firby we are self-professed lovers of tractors, regardless of whether they are red or not. We sell and hire out a wide range of many coloured and many makes of used tractors and agricultural machinery. Although we are dedicated to the used tractor business we still find the time to run a farm and we use this as a place to check all the agricultural machinery for sale. Any major problems are repaired before selling them on to our customers. If you are interested in buying a used tractor or any other piece of agricultural machinery just give us a ring on 01653 628614.