Anyone visiting the Farm Machinery Show in the RDS yesterday would have found it difficult to believe there was a farming crisis.
There has been a huge turnout for the show, which is held every second year, and it is believed serious business is being done by farmers who are in a buying mood.
It has to be said that the confident people at yesterday's show were drawn mainly from the tillage sector, dairy farms and people involved in agricultural contracting.
According to Mr Michael Devine, president of the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association, business has been very good at the show, which has £14 million worth of machinery on display.
"The latest figures we have from the CSO for tractor sales show that they were up by 20 per cent on the 1997 figures, and I would expect that will continue at a high level."
He said one of the most welcome developments this year was the number of farmers who had travelled from Northern Ireland to attend the show for the first time.
"There are six busloads in from the North today, and this, I believe, is a spin-off of the peace process. There are also many Northern manufacturers of machinery selling their produce here.
"It used to be the other way round. We used to sell a lot of our machinery to the North, but that is now being reversed."
Mr Devine said sales at the show were being aided by the low cost of borrowing money and the fact that machinery sales were strongest in the sectors which have been less affected by the poor weather and low stock prices.
The show runs until 6 p.m. today.