Pto guards can be a farmer’s nightmare; they are dangerous and notoriously difficult to grease.

Trying to solve both these problems is Irish agricultural distributor Reliance, which has added two new safety-conscious pto guards to its range.

The company has already sold 3,500 units of its new Bare-Co guard since January 2011, and it is expected to quickly catch up with the 20,000 standard units shifted each year.

Designed and manufactured in Australia, the guard is CE approved and can be unclipped from its bearing point at the yoke end and moved along the shaft to make those hard-to-reach grease nipples far easier to get at.

The distributor says the guard can be removed, pto greased, and guard refitted in under three minutes, a vast improvement on current set-ups. The covers are re-usable and can be cut down to size, with a full set of bearings provided so that it can fit almost any shaft.

Currently available in Ireland, the standard guard is £100, with the recently released wide-angle guard available for £200.

Also new to Reliance is the Access Protect safety device, which can instantly stop pto rotation.

Wired into the mudguard safety stop, the system has an adjustable cord running between the back of the tractor and the implement which, if pulled, stops the shaft.

The system is designed to be retro-fitted and is compatible with almost all tractors with an electrically engaged pto clutch.

Access Protect is expected to be available from mid-February for about £185.