Draft:Machinery Ring Association

Machinery ring organizations are associations, in which farmers and agricultural enterprises can connect and cooperate in "solidary self-help communities". While the specific activities and collaboration areas vary depending on the organization's local chapter, Machinery Ring associations generally act as intermediary bodies for achieving cost savings, and reducing expenses as a collective, for example by jointly purchasing and sharing forestry- or agricultural machinery or placing farmers at fellow member businesses for mutual work assistance. Additionally, centralized services, such as trainings and in-kind and monetary support in times of hardship is often secured and coordinated via the collective.

Machinery rings are organized in local chapters, with different legal forms, including registered associations and cooperatives. These local unions are connected to their sister organizations in regional and/or country-wide federations and financed by membership fees and matching service provisions. Many Machinery Ring associations additionally hold commercial subsidiary companies, e.g. focused on temporary staff leasing.

The first machinery ring association was founded in 1958 by Erich Geiersberger in Bavarian Buchhofen under the name Maschinenbank Buchhofen. At a time of increased agricultural mechanization, this cooperative enabled joint investment in cost-intensive machinery and was part of Geisberger's vision for a "Bavarian way", emphasizing cooperation between full-time-, part-time-, and subsidiary farmers, as well as a strong embedding of the agricultural industry in local communities and families.

As of 2024, 630 Machinery Ring organizations accounting for 350,000 members have been established in regions of 15 countries (Austria, Czech Republic, England and Wales, France, Germany, Hungary, Kenya, Luxembourg, Norway, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Tyrol, Sweden, Switzerland).. Their national collectives are formally connected through the Machinery Ring World association (Weltverband der Maschinenringe e. V.), founded in June 2024 at Neubug a.d. Donau, as part of the Day of Machinery Rings convention. European national organizations had previously been bundled in its predecessor organization, the European Machinery Ring association (Europäischer Maschinenring e. V.), for 23 years. Similar to the Machinery Ring regional and country collectives, such as the German Bundesverband der Maschinenringe e.V., these more large-scale federations are focused primarily on know-how sharing, exchange facilitation and public awareness