Revving up for Grass & Muck

Cutting edge silage harvesting technology will be on demonstration at next week’s FTMTA show in Tipperary, writes Derek Casey

ALL roads lead to Gurteen College for the much anticipated FTMTA Grass & Muck Show 2018 this Thursday. The biennial event has proved very popular with the farming and agricultural contracting sectors since it was first introduced in 2010. Some 12,000 visitors are expected to attend this year.

Recently improving conditions have brought good grass growth on the Gurteen College site, which is the largest agricultural college farm in the country at close to 1,000 acres. FTMTA boss Gary Ryan says the focus at Grass & Muck is on working machinery, with ongoing demonstrations throughout the day in the grass harvesting, reseeding, silage pit, slurry spreading and farm yard manure-spreading areas.

Over 20 firms will demonstrate their ranges of silage-making equipment across in excess of 100 acres of grassland. For the first time there will be five brands of self-propelled forage harvesters (SFPH) in action. Fendt will be making their first appearance at the event and the Katana is sure to attract much attention. Also in action on the SFPH front will be regulars Claas, Krone, New Holland and John Deere.

There will be comprehensive displays from the main Irish and international grass machinery manufacturers and, interestingly, this year sees Massey Ferguson taking a large demo area to showcase their evolving grass line.

Four brands will demonstrate their loading shovels and telehandlers on the silage pit and at the dung heap. The silage pit is always a visitor favourite with over 8,000 people taking their turn on the viewing platform to watch the big machines in action last time out. A new wheeled loader from Claas, the Torion, will no doubt attract much attention.

The dung spreading demonstrations offer a dual opportunity to view the spreaders themselves in action and also the telehandlers working hard to keep these hungry machines filled throughout the day. A total of seven exhibitors will participate in the dung spreading demonstration with a number of machines making their first appearance such as Teagle, Metal-Fach and Marshall.

Slurry spreading will take place in an adjacent area on an alternating rota with dung spreading and will feature demos from Irish manufacturers such as Abbey, Cross and SlurryKat.

Meanwhile, with the increased focus on quality grass production brought into sharp focus in recent months, the reseeding area is one many visitors are sure to be interested in with demos from Poettinger, Duncan Ag, Alstrong and DH Farm Machinery. The trade village features nearly 100 stands representing agricultural-related businesses, including seed, fertiliser, machinery and financial service providers.

Tickets for the event can either be bought on the day (€20) or for a discounted rate (€15) online at ftmta.ie. People buying tickets in this way will receive an e-ticket by email.