After some delay and much frustration amongst farmers and manufacturers, the government eventually published the list of equipment eligible for the Targeted Agricultural Moderinsation (TAMS) 3 Low Emissions Slurry Spreading Scheme (LESS) on May 8.
As expected, the scheme covered the purchase of shallow injection and trailing-shoe type attachments to the rear of a tanker, but not dribble bar, or trailing-hose types as the department used to refer to the shoeless version of the technique.
What is a trailing shoe?
What was not given in the document, however, was any definition of what a trailing-shoe type applicator actually is.
That information has not been openly published; instead, interested parties have had to approach the department directly for the definition.
Mastek Ltd. of Co. Cavan did take the trouble to ask and was eventually informed that a trailing-shoe type applicator would need to part the grass and lay the slurry directly onto the soil surface.
Armed with this confirmation of what the department thought a trailing shoe is, Paul Quinn, managing director of the company, went ahead and launched its FlexiShoe applicator which is basically a hybrid between a rigid trailing shoe and flexible dribble-bar type applicator.
One of the great objections to the trailing-shoe type applicator is that it is entirely unsuitable for rough, uneven or stony ground, all of which are commonly found on Irish farms.
Dribble-bar type applicators are not affected in these situations as the flexible hoses merely bend out of the way of undulations, and tankers may be reversed or turned tightly without having to raise the applicator.
Further issues
Another major problem with the trailing-shoe type is that regulations in some other EU countries require that they need to apply pressure to the ground, and in doing so the chances of ripping stones out of the soil are greatly increased, leading to damage to mowers and harvesters.
Sprung-type trailing shoe applicators also increase the draught requirement. For instance, the German stipulation for each shoe is 8kg ground pressure which, on a standard 7.6m boom width, equates to pulling a quarter tonne sled along behind.
This, in turn, increases fuel consumption adding further to the total emissions
The extra draught also places greater stress on the boom and the rear of the tanker, meaning that they can only be fitted to the chassis and not mounted on the tank itself, increasing cost and reducing the scope for retrofitting.
However, it appears that here in Ireland there is no stipulation for ground pressure so there needs to be no rigid support for the shoe by which weight can be transferred from the tanker to the soil surface.
Halfway house
Noting these issues, Mastek has removed the spring component from its standard trailing shoe applicators and hung a weighted shoe from each hose so that it acts to part the grass and lay the slurry on the soil surface, as required under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s (DAFM’s) definition of a trailing shoe applicator.
This may sound a simple fix, but it does require a heavier hose and a mechanism for lifting the centre section off the ground when folding the boom for transport.
All this, and one or two other tweaks, was put into place just as soon as Mastek had confirmation of what exactly was meant by a trailing-shoe type applicator and within the first week of its launch, the company had sold five new booms equipped with the new system, along with a good deal more enquiries.
Successful trials of the FlexiShoe
Unfortunately, it was not possible to see the new applicator in action when Agriland visited Mastek recently.
However, videos of it in the field suggest that it performs as well as a standard trailing shoe machine – but without the draught requirement or disruption to the soil surface.
The choice to use lay-flat hose, rather than simply continue the orange delivery pipe down to ground level, was made to keep the transport width within limits. The wall of the hose, however, is thicker than that of standard dribble-bar hose, to give it a little rigidity.
The cost of the Mastek FlexiShoe system is approximately €100/outlet with no modifications being required to a standard Mastek dribble-bar boom being required, enabling the conversion of existing dribble bar machines to trailing shoe.