Claydon Drills has appointed Tullamore-based New Holland tractor dealer W. R. Shaw Ltd as its official importer for Ireland.

Both companies will work closely with Furlong Agri, the agent for Claydon Drills, to develop the market for Claydon drills, rolls and straw harrows in Ireland, which is now Claydon’s second largest international market. Claydon says about 40 drills are in use in Ireland.

Noel Furlong of Furlong Agri was one of the first farmers to buy a 3m Claydon Hybrid drill in 2011 to reduce establishment costs on his own 500-acre farm and another 800 acres which he farms on contract. He quickly realised that a large potential market existed for the Claydon system in Ireland and took on the agency. Uptake of the system quickly exceeded his expectations.

“W.R. Shaw was an obvious partner, for a number of reasons,” says Charlie Eaton, UK and Ireland sales manager for Claydon Drills. “The Shaw family uses the Claydon system on their own farm. Stocks of new Claydon drills, rolls and straw harrows are now available at their new premises on the Burlington Business Park in Tullamore.”

The Claydon Drill’s patented seeding technique claims to allow the establishment of many different types of crops direct into stubble, min-tilled or fully-cultivated soils. The cost of establishing crops with the Claydon system is claimed to be about one-third that of using a full cultivations programme and five times faster.

Claydon has recently developed a new 3m wide Hybrid drill with a split hopper design to allow fertilizer to be placed with the seed while drilling. The company claims that this system works well with the Claydon system where only the soil immediately around the seeding zone is moved, leaving the rest of the soil undisturbed.

The drill has the capacity to carry 750kg of seed and 750kg of fertilizer, fed through two metering units so that variable application rates can be applied. The fertilizer rate is set and controlled using the drill’s RDS Artemis Electronic control system, so no separate control box is required.

Claydon has also developed a new 12.3m wide folding roller. The Claydon Rolls comprise of five 2.5m wide sections that fold down horizontally to just 2.85m for transport. Each roller unit is fitted with 24in breaker rings with a working weight of 682kg/m to provide optimum consolidation.

With a minimum power requirement of 100 horsepower working at 6kph, the Claydon rolls are capable of covering around 6.6ha/hour. The standard specification also includes full road lighting and hydraulic braking.