As ever, machinery is at the forefront of the National Ploughing Championships, with a broad display of equipment on show at Ratheniska for 2024.

A walk round the machinery section reveals two or three general themes as agriculture moves ahead another year and machinery takes further incremental steps forward.

Materials handling is one of the areas that is receiving ever more attention from manufacturers who are keen to re-orientate farmers thinking away from the standard tractor with front end loader format and point it towards more focused equipment.

Materials handling

The case to be made for specialist machines in performing any job around the farm is usually strong and would revolve around the fact that tractors will often spend as much time undertaking loading and transport tasks as they will in the field.

At this year’s ploughing, loaders and teleporters are very much in evidence with mini loaders from China rubbing shoulders with 35m reach teleporters from Italy.

Merlo telehandler
The Merlo T 30.7 telehandler is set to spearhead the company’s drive into the Irish market

While this latter may be a construction orientated machine, the manufacturer, Merlo, is absolutely intent on addressing the Irish market’s reluctance to consider this type of equipment, instead of remaining with traditional methods of farm operation.

Yet they are not the only ones, Manitou has a fine display of equipment and is also keen to see more telehandlers on farms, as do New Holland and Weidmann, both already well-established in the country and both with representative machines on display.

Weidmann loader
Many implement manufacturers are expanding the telehandlers role through attachments such as this VDMJ straw blower

One of the criticisms of teleporters is their lack of flexibility, all the action is up front, Merlo has addressed this issue with the Multifarmer which comes with a rear linkage and is displayed on the Agriland stand on Row 15.

New Holland Backhoe loader
With a loader at the front and what can be regarded as a multifunctional jib at the rear the backhoe loader will have many uses around the farm

An alternative approach is to consider a backhoe loader. It is true that the reach is not as great, although stacking bales three high is perfectly possible, but the backhoe can work well as a small crane while being an enormous boon when it comes to farm maintenance.

Slurry management

There is talk in the trade of the great rush to ground level application easing as the market drops away now that most of those who were going to upgrade to larger tankers and booms have done so.

Abbey trailing shoe
Abbey is keen to demonstrate how its boom cope with sloping ground

The emphasis appears to have now shifted to improving the actual application of the slurry to the ground with companies attempting to overcome the DAFM’s preference for trailing shoe nozzles with variations on the theme of dribble bar hoses or making the shoe mounting more flexible.

KME, Fleming and Cross are all showing their answers to the conundrum, while Mastek has its Flexi trailing shoe and Slurryquip has a twinned shoe system that is attached via flexible hose.

Fleming booms
Reduced transport height is a major feature of Fleming’s booms

Fleming is also showing its foldable booms that reduce the overall height of the spreading unit in transport position, allowing for lower bridges/trees to be passed under and enabling storage in less airy sheds.

Much else at The Ploughing

Other highlights include first sight of the Kverneland Rotago F Power Harrow, which allows for on-the-go adjustments of the levelling bar and working depth, which may be controlled either manually or by ISOBUS.

Kverneland bale chopper
With housing rapidly approaching Kverneland has its latest version of the 850 series bale choppers on display

Kverneland’s Parent group, Kubota, has taken a large stand to show off its full machinery range, which includes its own compact loader and the latest tractors.

Malone rake
The new 610 Proline from Malone fills a large section of the company’s large stand

Malone is showing its new twin rotary rake for the first time and it takes centre stage in a packed stand that illustrates just how this relatively young company has grown and continues to develop.

Nugent Engineering stand
Silage grabs and toppers now vie for space with road trailers in the Nugent display

Another company that is growing into the agricultural machinery space is Nugent Engineering of Co. Tyrone.

Best known for its wide range of road trailers, there is now a good selection of of smaller tractor mounted implements sharing the space at the Ploughing this year