While stone walls and green fields will number among the key features that most will recall when talking about the countryside of County Galway, Ireland, what is not so well known is the fact that average farm size is about 40ha. Farmers tend to operate their own farms on a part- time basis as well as having other jobs in the nearby towns and cities.
And that's good news for ag contracting company Bobby Hynes & Sons, based near Athenry, Co Galway. Why? Because small farms mean many customers. Despite working within a 20-mile radius of home, the ag contracting business has over 350 customers on its books - each of whom, in this predominantly grass area of Ireland, is likely to be running either a suckler herd or dairy unit.
The Hynes' contracting business was started 40 years ago by Bobby Hynes; a modest beginning saw a green Steyr tractor operating a cutterbar mower. But then dedication to providing a top class service for customers over the years has steadily led to a an enterprise that is now able to offer a broad range of ag services including slurry spreading, grass reseeding, cattle transport and a field-to-clamp silage service.
Following the death of Bobby early last year, the business is now run by his three sons - Pairic, Donal and Colm - each of whom has continued to operate the business in the same dedicated fashion. One of the key services is slurry spreading, as the severely limited supply of straw means that most cattle are housed in sheds with slatted floors.
"There is a tremendous amount of slurry produced within this area and next to no solid manure," explains Pairic. "During the winter the cattle are invariably housed on slatted floors, and straw for bedding is used only very rarely."
The result is a big volume of liquid slurry that has to be pumped out from several hundred slurry lagoons and spread on the grassland. In the past the emphasis has been to simply get the slurry out of the farm lagoon with little thought given to where the slurry was spread. However, as in most other parts of Europe, the high prices for nitrogen fertiliser have focused minds on trying to achieve the best use of slurry – and thus cut the overall spend on fertiliser in the process.
"It is quite noticeable how attitudes have changed," he says. "The vast majority of our customers are now looking to reduce reliance on purchased fertilisers, using slurry in a controlled manner by selecting the fields they apply it to and taking note of the amount applied."
With such a high volume of work to get through - up to 11 million litres of slurry is spread each year - it is no surprise to learn that this sector of the operation accounts for the lion's share of the contracting business now carried out by the Hynes family. And it also calls for a large amount of kit in the form of tankers and lagoon agitators.
In total, there is a fleet of four tankers - 2,600gall (11,820 litres) capacity versions manufactured by Major Equipment. Three of the tankers have splash plate spreading systems while the fourth - the most recent arrival - is equipped with a trailing shoe application system.
"There now seems to be moves afoot to encourage greater use of trailing shoe application systems, which place slurry at ground level between the grass stems so that there is little smell or tainting of the grass," explains Pairic. "A few years down the line and their use could well become mandatory."
Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS) is also an important influence on the way the countryside is now managed and this, too, could in time have a say in the way that slurry is spread and where it is spread.
"The losses in nutritional value that occur when a conventional splash plate is used are well documented," he says. "And it is not altogether socially acceptable when working near houses."
Provided by local firm Major Equipment for the slurry tanker used by the Hynes, their particular trailing shoe unit comes with a 7.4m working width that folds to 2.8m for transport. "Although we charge a premium on our normal €30/tank rate to use this system, many of our customers have not been long in appreciating the advantages of the trailing shoe system," he says.
"We can apply up to 4,000 galls/acre onto grass and the cattle can be back in the field within a few days." By comparison, spreading with the splash plate can take a productive pasture out of use for a total of up to four weeks.
There are still potential difficulties with the trailing shoe, though. Asking slurry to exit a series of relatively small outlets at ground level does mean the slurry has to be virtually free of fibre material that can create blockages.
"There is a macerator on the applicator but, on its own, I'm not so sure it would fully cope with what we have to handle," comments Pairic, who adds that a lot of customers feed unchopped baled silage that cattle tend to pull out and drop. This long fibre then makes its way through the slats into the slurry lagoon. “Long strands of grass can be a tough problem for the macerator to cope with," he says. "As can, for that matter, plastic bale twine and net wrap."
So, some help for the applicator from the tanker's own chopping system is deemed to be a useful feature and helps to ensure the machine can keep spreading without time-consuming blockages. Slurry drawn from the lagoon passes through a stone trap and then through a set of rotating knives before it reaches the centrifugal pump that, along with the vacuum created, loads the tank itself. In the field the slurry then passes through the chopping knives once more before being pumped back to the trailing shoe unit's macerator/ distributor head at the rear. "In all, the slurry is chopped three times, and this action really helps to keep the job going," he says.
There are no such blockage problems for the splash plate tankers which, as they are designed to do, just blast it out of the tank. However, with an increasing number of customers recognising the ability of the trailing shoe application system to retain a far greater percentage of the nutritional value of their slurry, one of the other tankers has been equipped with linkages and pipework to allow a trailing shoe unit to be attached.
"We have made provision for a second applicator to be used. And when we feel the time is right, we shall be able to fit one on," he explains. In the meantime, the four tankers are in almost constant use, apart from the close season between the start of November and the middle of January. That said, the weather can and does bring operations to a halt because, not surprisingly, running heavy slurry tankers across grassland when the ground is wet is not considered acceptable.
Use of flotation tyres helps, but Pairic says he still prefers to keep off the land.
Grassland is the life blood of the farming industry in this part of Ireland and every effort is made to ensure it is not damaged by hefty machinery.
Towing the tankers are members of the business's New Holland tractor fleet, which includes seven TM models.
"We reckon to put at least 140hp in front of the tankers," says Pairic. "The terrain around here is not over steep, but I think it's better that we have the right amount of power to cope with the job."
The daily output is dependent on running distance between field and lagoon but, with filling times of about three minutes, the slurry tankers are kept on the move throughout the day.
"The slurry business is an important part of our agricultural contracting business and is also an integral part of the farming industry in this area," he concludes.
For more information about the MAJOR range of slurry injectors click here. To visit the Profi Tractors website click here.
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