The low emission slurry spreading measure in the new GLAS scheme has sparked huge interest among farmers and contractors in trailing shoes.
Many farmers are set to opt for the measure to ensure their entry into the scheme.
According to Martin Walsh, of Major Farm Equipment, the interest in trailing shoes in the last number of days has been huge.
“From farmers and contractors ringing us directly to interest from dealers, we are getting a lot of calls.”
Walsh says there has been a lot enquires about the costs and how retrofitting the equipment might work and how suitable there current tank is.
“Previously we would only sell a handful of trailing shoes every year mostly to dairy farmers as they could justify the money spent in savings in Nitrogen application.”
Walsh said, for many farmers and contractors, a big issue could be whether there existing tank becomes obsolete.
“The bigger the tank the easier it is to retrofit the trailing shoe. It’s not going to be simple for every machine,” he said.
Walsh said Major trailing shoes start form €10,000 + VAT up to as high as €18,000 + VAT depending on the equipment.
“Trailing shoes are a great way of doing the job, but there is no doubt that contractors will have to be paid more to use it on farms,” he said.
Conor Engineering in Co. Clare has also seen increased enquiries since the details of GLAS emerged.
“We have got tonnes of enquires about trailing shoes in recent weeks,” said Barry O’Connor, of Conor Engineering.
It sells mostly through dealers and, according to O’Connor, they have been getting huge interest from farmers and contractors over the last two weeks.
“While we haven’t picked up many firm sales as yet, most of the enquires have been people costing the equipment and carrying out their own cost benefit analysis.
The interest in trailing shoes has grown in recent years in Ireland, he said, however, they have been much more popular in the UK over the years.
In terms of cost, O’Connor said its trailing shoe starts at €10,000 + VAT.