Rea’s of Finvoy was this year’s hosts to the Northern Ireland Kverneland Tillage Road Show. The Antrim location will not be seen as the heartland of Ulster tillage farming, being more of the grassy “Green Glens” type of country in most minds. However, Antrim has many acres of good Arable land. Mark Rea had such a field near the village of Kilrea - overlooking the majestic Bann and Co. Antrim from the Londonderry side.
Mark Rea heads the second generation of Rea’s to run their well known Farm Machinery outlet in Finvoy. The business was started by his father George in 1952 primarily as a machinery supply and repair shop. The Rea family have farmed in the locality for generations and as always the farm eventually became too small to support the wider family. George made the move into a business which to day is well known and respected right across Northern Ireland.
Our intention is to show the full range of tillage equipment whenever possible, especially if some of the machines are “new” to the area. Rea’s provided the field and most of the tractors-our thanks to Mark for all his hard work. We also took the opportunity to show a couple of different versions of the top selling ES Plough-one with Slatted Boards and one with No 28 Bodies.
The Accord Drill range alone is a big one with the favourite DA being best known. Less well known is the latest in Three Metre One Pass machines the iDrill PRO integrated with a Kverneland Heavy Duty Power Harrow. This machine was being worked on the day, and was equipped with the latest in disc technology from Kverneland. These CX Ultra Discs do a really nice job of seed placing but also do a final tilling and breaking of clods—all followed by rolling Press Wheels to ensure good germination.
The latest six metre folding Power Harrow the NG-S - 601 - F35 was on display working on a Fendt 920. For the reseeding man who needs to bust a few pans, the simple CLE Pan Buster with three legs and the famous Kverneland trip legs showed how you can drop the tip to 70 cm depth to bust even the most established hard pan.
Combination machines become more and more popular and here Kverneland offer the CLC machine in fixed or Hydraulic fold and the new Qualidisc cultivator was put through its paces.
The top selling plough range was of course on view, with the ES being perhaps the best known in the Irish market.
The event started at 11am in what promised initially to be a wet day. The winds kept the rain to passing showers, with good attendances from local farmers throughout the day. Towards midday the ones who were hungry could avail of a burger and a cup of coffee on site.
Thirty two acres in total was ploughed, tilled cultivated and sown by a selection of implements, during the day, with the event coming to a halt at around four pm. Most of the attendees had a good chance to see all the machinery in action and to discuss the finer points with the well informed staff from Kverneland Ireland and Rea’s of Finvoy.
If you would like any information on the machines mentioned - please phone Mark Rea at 028295 71232 or Raymond Arnold on 0044 7860 387421.
Kverneland Group, Ireland in Kilkenny can be reached on 00353 56 65826 or on the web at http://ir.kverneland.com/
16. October 2013
