FTMTA Grass & Muck 2012 A Resounding Success

The much anticipated FTMTA Grass & Muck 2012 took place at Gurteen Agricultural College on May 17th and was a resounding success. Despite very mixed weather conditions across the country generally, the weather on the site was good in the buildup days and remained so, in the main, on the day. Visitor numbers were up considerably on the 2010 event and nearly 9,000 visitors attended. The considerable efforts of the exhibitors with regard to presentation and display resulted in a fantastic visual spectacle on the day with an impressive array of machinery on site.

Those present viewed ongoing demonstrations throughout the day in the grass, reseeding, silage pit, slurry spreading and farm yard manure spreading areas as well as visiting the numerous trade stands. The new location of the static stand area at the centre of the working plots was most successful and added hugely to the spectacle. Gurteen College’s catering staff were paid many compliments for the value and quality on offer at the main catering marquee.

The FTMTA acknowledge the tremendous support of our exhibitors and the cooperation received from all concerned which ensured the successful running of the event. The assistance of the management, staff and students of Gurteen College was vital to the success of the event and for that the Association is extremely grateful. The cooperation of An Garda Siochana at Borrisokane Station was excellent and the help of the Gardai in easing traffic flow to and from the site is much appreciated.The central location of the site and the accessibility from the main road contributed to ensuring that there were no traffic problems and that getting on and off the site was a matter of minutes despite the large number of visitors.

FTMTA wishes to thank all those who contributed in various ways to the preparation of the site for FTMTA Grass & Muck 2012 at Gurteen Agricultural College, Ballingarry, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary in the days leading up to the event.The cutting out of the roadways and paths around the working plots was carried out with a Fendt tractor supplied by AGCO and a front mounted Fella mower which was supplied by Farmec (Ireland) Ltd. The cutting out operation is, by necessity, a precision exercise and the guidance of the tractor and mower was looked after by a Leica Geosystems GPS system. Great thanks are owed to John Stafford of Farmec and John Arrell of Progressive Agriculture Solutions, who represents Leica in Ireland, for their patience and persistence in the face of delays caused by poor weather conditions and a shared determination to preserve the site as much as possible.The task of clearing the site of the mown grass fell to Ross Whiteford operating a Bergman forage wagon which is imported by his father, Henry, of HLR Machinery.The volume of grass that was collected from the site in this operation alone is testament to the great work done by Wray Platt and the team at Gurteen on the preparation of the site over a number of months since late last year.

It is always the intention of FTMTA to leave a venue in good order and in this case we were greatly assisted by the sponsorship provided by Finol Oils Ltd towards the waste bins on site. Finol Oils are the distributors of a range of agricultural tractor and transmission oils under the Total and Elf brands.

FTMTA would also like to acknowledge the support of New Holland who provided a Rustler utility vehicle, Tim Gleeson Machinery Ltd. of Nenagh who provided a number of Honda ATVs and Monasterevin Motors who provided an Isuzu D Max for the use of event personnel.

As previously announced, FTMTA plan that this event will be a regular biennial event on alternate years to the FTMTA Farm Machinery Show in Punchestown and FTMTA Grass & Muck will return to the Gurteen site in May of 2014.