AN agricultural machinery show that has grown from strength to strength takes place next month for its seventh year.

YAMS – Yorkshire Agricultural Machinery Show – will take place once again at York Auction Centre in Murton near York on Wednesday, February 5.

When auctioneer Richard Tasker was approached by a local farm machinery dealership to host the relaunch of a tractor brand seven years ago, it gave him an idea for a larger event bringing together other farm machinery dealers in the county that has grown into a show that last year attracted about 12,000 visitors, its highest attendance to date.

Richard said: "We were fortunate and hit the mark from that first show in 2014. Yorkshire is a massive county with a rich diversity of farming from the East Riding and the Holderness plain to the North York Moors, Vales of York and Pickering, the Yorkshire Dales in North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire and down to the edge of the Peak District – and that means the whole range of agricultural machinery is in use from tractors to grass harvest, combine harvesters to livestock equipment, cultivation machinery to slurry tankers and everything in between.

"The early part of the year is an established purchase period for new farm machinery. It’s a time when farmers can evaluate what will work best and what better way than to have everything in one place so that a decision can be made.

The show hit a new record of 230 tradestands last year and by late November 2019, Richard is already on course to top that figure.

Richard said: "As well as being a show where business is done, YAMS has also become one of the biggest social events of the farming calendar in Yorkshire during the early part of the year. We make every effort to ensure it is easy to get in on the day with a free shuttle bus service running every 15 minutes from the Grimston Bar Park & Ride where everyone can park for free. The bus takes just five minutes to get visitors on the showground."