FTMTA GRASS & MUCK EVENT TAKES PLACE Over 8,000 Large Farmers & Agri Contractors attended last week by Liam De Paor
This flagship event for Ireland’s farm machinery trade took place at Gurteen Agricultural College near Birr on 17 May. This is a very central location so it always attracts a large crowd and the good weather also helped the attendance. More people from Northern Ireland would also attend if the date did not clash with Balmoral Show.
In total there were around 130 trade exhibitors. Over 20 leading firms demonstrated their ranges of silage-making and grassland care and reseeding equipment across 100 acres of grassland. It is estimated that there was €35m of machinery on display at t Gurteen. The addition of an extra grass demo area, allowed the FTMTA to allocate additional space to many previous exhibitors, as well as plots for exhibitors demonstrating for the first time.
A number of major brands demonstrated their loading shovels and telehandlers on the silage pit and at the dung heap. The silage pit is always an attractive location as visitors take their turn on the viewing platform to watch the machines in action. The dung spreading demos are a great opportunity to view the spreaders in action and to see the telehandlers filling these machines.
You can see some videos of these demos and an interview with Gary Ryan the CEO of FTMTA here