Pembrokeshire, South Wales is renowned for its milk production, many large dairy enterprises with 500 - 600 milking cows and with it, mountains of slurry and farmyard manure. But for Richard Merriman Contractors, it’s all in a day’s work. The company provides a wide range of contract services including; self-propelled forage harvesting, hedging, ploughing, cultivations and muck spreading. Operating generally within 25 miles of Carmarthen, muck spreading is a major part of their business.
“Ten years ago we were running two Shelbourne Reynolds Contractor model 2000 muck spreaders, said Richard Merriman, “which were great for our early days, but now that we have much more work coming in, we have upgraded to the Shelbourne Reynolds 3200 Powerspread Pro models with a long wheel base. We have four of them running through narrow application windows in spring and autumn. They are much larger, stronger and very easy to use, especially when it comes to controlling spread rates and applications. We bought them from the Tallis Amos Group in Narberth, our local dealer, and they have proven to be the right choice.”
Richard purchased the four Shelbourne Reynolds Powerspread Pros from TAG in 2012 and 2013 and have already put them through a significant amount of work, so you could say they have definitely been tried and tested. The 3200 model Powerspread Pro with long wheel base is a side discharge machine with a very high output and is aimed at the specialist contractor or large farm market. It has the capacity to carry around 15+ tonnes of all types of solid manure, even slurry and spreads a 20 metre wide application pattern for even distribution. A 750mm main auger carries the manure to a centrally positioned rotor that propels an even flow of material through a specially designed, hydraulically operated outlet door that incorporates a shear bar system to ensure chopping of material and evenness of spread. By hydraulically controlling the outlet door, the operator can adjust applications through both material flow and forward speed.
Running gear is based on a single axle with 650/65 R30.5 tyres (although tandem axle can be specified), but Richard finds these large tyres and wheels “give a good ride and limits any potential compaction.”
“We do a lot of roadwork and use a John Deere 6210R and 7530s at fifty k, said Richard. “even fully-loaded, these spreaders run perfectly behind the tractors. The operators love them because they feel very safe on the road, our customers love them because they hardly mark the field - even fully laden, and I love them because they are simple to maintain and are very reliable - so very cost effective. It also means a reliable machinery fleet can keep a reliable schedule for our customers - and that is a big bonus! As with any form of contract muck spreading there is always the chance of picking up stones or pieces of wood that would otherwise damage equipment, but these spreaders have a lot of safety devices built-in to minimise damage. They even have a reverse auger drive, so if anything was to get lodged in the body of the spreader it is very easy to unblock it in the field.””
For loading, Richard has a JCB (model) which takes just four bucket loads to fill the spreaders and sends them on their way. “we have a great relationship with TAG and have been using them for a long time, added Richard, “they provide excellent back-up services for our tractors, and our entire contracting fleet, they are always there at the end of the phone if needed. Their parts department is really excellent, they always seem to have the right parts on the shelf any time we need them.” he concluded
