Foragers barked, mowers whirred and muckspreaders stunk out the 400ha Aberystwyth University Farm last week, giving punters the perfect chance to get their grass machinery fix.

Here, we pick out a few highlights.

Malone Tedd-Air 1120T

Sporting eight 1.6m rotors, the trailed Tedd-Air 1120T tedder from Malone can cover up to 11.2m in a pass.

It’s the largest model the County Mayo manufacturer has produced to date and comes with a longer chassis than the previous range topper, the six-rotor 840T.

Like its smaller siblings, there are seven tine arms per rotor, each fitted with double hooked tines that help lift, turn and aerate the grass – hence the Tedd-Air moniker.

See also: Grass and forage farming kit: Where is it made?

Rotors spin at 151rpm, which allows it to work at speeds of up to 15kph, and it has a so-called “super flotation” system to help it ride smoothly over rough ground.

This works thanks to an accumulator integrated into the hydraulic circuit for unfolding and folding the wings.

For additional strength, rotors run on oversized 35mm shafts, and Walterscheid ptos are used throughout the driveline.

There’s also a hydraulic border guard to prevent grass being flung into hedges, ditches and fences.

Other features include lower link-arm attachment, LED lights and a jack on the axle for adjusting working height. On-farm price is £26,500.

Shelbourne Reynolds 3200 Powerspread Pro

Weigh cells and nutrient mapping are now available for the first time on Shelbourne Reynolds’ range of contractor-spec side-discharge spreaders.

Seen here is the largest 3,200-gallon Powerspread Pro model fitted with Digi-Star nutrient tracking system.

This uses a combination of weigh cells and GPS data to display the actual amounts being applied per hectare.

It can also give target speeds for operators to drive in order to achieve desired application rates.

At the same time, accurate maps are produced, which help simplify record keeping.

Also fitted on the top-spec model pictured is an optional tandem-axle setup.

This helps it travel better in wet conditions and, thanks to hydraulic steering at the rear, there’s a lower risk of scuffing on headlands.

Other features of the Powerspread Pro include a full-length auger that draws material from the front and rear of the hopper to the centrally mounted side-discharge rotor.

This spins at 700rpm, flinging material into the Hardox steel door, which causes the muck to fragment and spread in a neat arc to the side of the machine.

Retail price of the fully loaded example on show is £58,000.

Slurryquip Tornado front-mounted compressor

Designed to perch on a tractor’s front linkage, the Tornado pto-driven compressor from Slurryquip provides a neat setup for cleaning out slurry pipes or blowing off machinery.

Output is a suitably gusty 350CFM, which is delivered by a direct drive compressor that eliminates the need for chains, sprockets or pulleys.

Air is expelled though either 1in or 2in pipe – depending on the customer’s preference – and it comes with 8m of hose stored on an integrated reel.

A non-return valve is built into the air line and it has a mechanically operated cooling system.

Compact proportions mean it sticks out no more than 1m from the link arms, it weighs less than 1t and it comes with headlights as standard.

On farm price is £12,500 and buyers have the option of choosing custom paint colours.

APV GK300M1 reseeder

Since taking on the import of Austrian-built APV machines in February, Dalbo has brought in a series of grassland reseeding tools.

One of the most versatile is the GK300M1, which comes complete with sprung front levelling boards, two rows of chunky 12mm tines with angle adjustment and a Guttler-style packer at the rear.

Seed is distributed via the firm’s own 200-litre PS200 M1 pneumatic applicator with GPS metering and a top-link sensor for auto on/off.

This has eight outlets piped to spreader plates positioned between the tines and the packer.

For added versatility, the rear packer and seeder unit can be removed, converting it to a simple straw harrow and levelling tool.

There’s also the option of fitting a front mounting kit, so the tines can run on the front of the tractor and the packer/seeder combination on the rear.

This is designed to improve weight distribution on particularly steep ground.

The tine section also has mounting points for a seeder, should the operator not want to use the rear packer.

On-farm price of the pictured setup is £15,250.

Same Explorer 125

A seldom seen Same Explorer made an appearance in Aberystwyth, with the region remaining a rare stronghold for the Italian brand.

This is in part because of a reasonable spread of long-standing Same dealers, represented in this case by Shropshire-based G Bryan Jones.

The pictured 126hp Explorer 125 (identical to a Deutz-Fahr 5125) sits atop a five-model range that starts at 96hp.

This, and three others, run a 3.85-litre, four-cylinder Farmotion engine, while the Explorer 100 makes do with a smaller three-bore block.

Drivetrain options start with a four-range, five-speed Deutz gearbox that buyers can have as is, or add two or three splitters for a total of 40 or 60 ratios.

Rear lift can top 5t when specced with optional assister rams, the 90-litre/min hydraulic pump feeds three manually controlled spools, and there are four pto speeds as standard.

Most are sold with brackets for a Stoll loader, with the joystick controls integrated into the right-hand console of the four-post cab.  

On-farm price is just shy of £58,000.

Kverneland butterfly mowers

Two new models have joined Kverneland’s now six-strong butterfly mower line-up, giving buyers a broader range of working widths to pick from.

The relatively simple 5387MT on show, and the other newbie – the 9.5m 5395MT – have simple in-cab switch boxes rather than an isobus connection and fixed-position beds that are 3.2m and 3.6m wide, respectively.

In the case of the 8.75m version, these each carry eight round discs armed with a pair of ProFit quick-change blades.

The firm’s pull-type QuattroLink bed suspension system allows for 700mm of vertical and 30deg of transverse movement, and incorporates a non-stop break-back mechanism.

Semi-swing tine conditioners are standard and there’s the option of fitting a BX belt-type grouper on the back to form a single row of grass.

These can be raised out of work to leave three individual swaths.

Prices for the 5387MT start at £55,767; adding the BX swath grouper takes that to £72,318.

Euromilk Buffalo RX1010

Visitors that troubled themselves to traipse to the outer reaches of the 400ha site were rewarded with a first look at Euromilk’s new-to-the-UK Buffalo muckspreader.

The Polish band recently sealed an import agreement with Shropshire-based HF Evans & Son that includes the vertical beater spreaders as well as diet feeders and silage pushers.

With a 10.4cu m, or 10t, capacity, the pictured RX1010 model is the pup of the range.

Sides are formed out of 4mm plate with thicker 6mm steel for the floors and it runs two bed chains with single slats.

Spreading is carried out via twin sloping vertical rear beaters with horizontal tabs to help deliver an even spread pattern.

Prices for basic models start at £25,000, but scores of extras are available to tailor the machines to customers’ requirements.

Examples fitted to the pictured model include a hydraulic sprung drawbar, slurry door, automatic rear light covers and a heavy-duty gearbox, all of which push the price up to about £35,000.

Weighers can be added too, as can a Topcon mapping system.

Larger models are in the offing as well, with 14t plus versions coming in a heavy-duty format that includes tougher running gear and thicker 6mm steel for the sides. 

Buyers can also spec a hydraulic rear-door assembly that can be bolted in place of the rear beaters, thus converting it into a push-off trailer.

Overseeders

Away from the attention-stealing foragers, mowers and balers at the Sustainable Grass and Muck event was a raft of reseeding equipment for those more concerned about the following crop.

Duvelsdorf

Among them was the Duvelsdorf Green Rake – made in Germany, built in Ukraine – which for the past year has been imported to the UK by Northamptonshire outfit Lynx Engineering.

The fancier Expert model pictured has the same three rows of harrow tines as the base Classic model, but with the added perk of angle adjustment to alter aggressivity.

Ahead of these, buyers have the option of paddle boards or a full-width levelling bar, and behind them is a pair of depth wheels as standard. These can be swapped for a toothed roller, albeit at considerable cost – it adds about £7,000 to the £17,000 list price of the 3m model.

On top is Duvelsdorf’s seeder unit, with the smaller version offer 300-litre capacity and eight outlets that feed their respective spreader plates. Those buying one of the wider models – the range runs to 9m – will likely prefer the 500-litre setup.

Vredo

Cheshire importer Campey Agriculture offers a more accurate approach to sward stitching with the Vredo Agri Twin.

Rather than a combination of tines and spreader plates, it uses a single row of independently sprung double discs, spaced just 7.5cm apart, to slice a V-shaped slit in the ground.

Closing the slot with the rear roller – flat or packer-type – should result in better seed-to-soil contact than alternative overseeding methods, says Vredo, and get crops off to a faster start.

The range includes rigid 2.5m and 2.9m models, and hydraulically folding versions with 4.4m (pictured) and 5.8m working widths.

The latter two come with a twice-as-big 425-litre hopper and, like the others, pneumatic seed distribution aft of a metering system capable of delivering anything from 3 to 210 kg/ha at a depth of between 0 and 25mm.

Erth Agriseeder

Packing 24 or 32 angled disc coulters, the Agriseeder from Erth Engineering is primarily designed for low-disturbance reseeding of grassland.

However, with a simple mechanically driven Accord metering system and hydraulic fan, it can also be used for establishing arable crops.

Sitting in front of the discs is an optional hydraulically adjustable front harrow, which helps clear the thatch from the top of old grass leys. Then, at the rear of the machine, is a flat roller and optional following harrow.

The main 1,000-litre hopper can be teamed with an additional 200-litre unit for adding starter fertiliser, slug pellets or other seeds. These can either be directed to the main coulters or spreader plates.

Guttler Greenmaster

Offering five operations in one machine – levelling, aeration, harrowing, seeding and reconsolidation – Guttler’s Greenmaster is another versatile tool for grassland management.

A front, tined “ripper board” covers a few of these functions, levelling molehills, aerating the ground and starting off the harrowing process.

This is followed up by two rows of adjustable tines and a prismatic packer roller at the rear. Seed is delivered via the firm’s own EPS 5 pneumatic seeder unit with 200- or 410-litre hopper.