I dislike John Deere equipment and dislike it a lot. However, they do always seem to call the market about right, which is why they are No.1. For now.

One thing that grind my gears about Deere is the marketing BS. I have driven them all, they all have good points and bad. But Deere always insist/imply that they invent stuff and have the most advanced stuff. You don't you have just about enough tech to keep the masses happy and no more. All these videos and marketing guff I keep seeing about their new Direct Drive transmission is hysterical. They keep on marketing them as an alternative to a CVT. They then show a video of how fast a tractor with DD can pull away from 2 other competitive machines with a CVT. No sh*t Sherlock. CVT in not very fast off the lights shocker. Why not show DD in an application where only a CVT will do and they show the driver punching the Deere marketeers repeatedly in the side of the head when he tries to match the forward speed to the conditions and can't? There must be many stupid people that can't see through this rubbish.

Anyway, what do I want?

I am am employee. I am here when ever the farm needs me for as long as it needs me with in reason. I want a nice place to sit with all the trappings that sitting in a modern machine brings.

Headlights. I have drive them all. Tractor headlights are crap, not matter how low you put them they are always too high. The lights on my motorbike are better.

The price you spend on a new tractor will buy you a top spec Merc S Class where everything is thought of. While most of the toys are superfluous, how about the interior build quality of a mid spec Focus instead of the cheap, badly fitting plastic they normally use? How about a stereo in my £88,000 new tractor (that is in this week) that I might find in a £15,000 car instead of the cheap, horrible thing you will no doubt fit?

Putting all the controls in the armrest is great, but what has happened is that now the seats cannot turn around far enough, so those of us that spend all day looking over our shoulders just about need a back transplant.

I don't expect loads of cubby holes on the outside, because who knows what the customer will bolt to the tractors, but why is there so little storage space in the cab? Do engineers never eat, or carry a phone, or a pen. Tractors need control boxes and monitors, these are all different and I don't expect the manufacturer to know what I will need, but would like a few threaded holes to bolt things to so we don't have to remove the trim and drill holes.

Understand who your customers are and write the handbooks accordingly. Not in engineerese, then translated to French, then to Russian, then Mandarin and finally back to English so no one can understand anything. Look how intuitive mobile phones are, and ask yourself, is this tractor as good?

I like the gizmos and understand the need for electronics to eek the last 1% out of the fuel and keep the smog down. But many people complain about stupid electrical problems. Make them more reliable, give is a list of error codes, in English so we know what the problem is. While I'm on, what about some kind of code reader for the tractor that has a SIM card so it could communicate to the dealer or HQ to diagnose problems and download updates without calling the dealer out?

Tractors get stolen all the time here, so a unique key and an immobiliser like my old car has would be a start.

That's all for now.