Sun shines on record success at Scotgrass

Scotgrass 2010 drew a record turnout to SAC Crichton Royal, in the Dumfriesshire sunshine, with just short of 4750 paying on the gate and more than 5000 attending overall. Farmers travelled from all points of the British compass, Aberdeen to Devon and Colchester to Cork, and international visitors included a group from Estonia and individuals from Iran and Zimbabwe.

Scotgrass organiser Duncan Russell, of the Agricultural Engineers Association, said: “A terrific day on an ideal site with an excellent host and the knowledgeable crowd really appreciated the working demonstrations put on by our members.”

Hugh McClymont, farms manager at SAC Crichton Royal, said: “I knew early morning we were in for a bumper day when I found eight Irish coaches parked in the farmyard, seven from the north and the eighth having left Cork at midnight.”

SPECTATORS gather round during the demonstration of one of the New Holland balers	CLAAS EXHIBITS attracted a large crowd at the event
JOHN DEERE’S forage harvester makes an impressive entrance	CLOSE EXAMINATION of the forage harvester

Some of the top ‘acts’ included, as usual, the Claas display which included the spectacular new Liner 4000 grass rake which can extend to 15m working width and rake up 300 acres per day. Also notable was the 455 Uniwrap round baler which is just entering the market after three years of trials and is capable of having a 60 bales per hour throughput.

Another impressive line-up was that from Krone, where the giant Big X forage harvester drew the crowds, as well the full line-up of grass tackle.

A surprise debutante at the event was Kubota’s largest tractor yet in the UK, the 130hp M130X, which literally came to the event straight from being unloaded at the docks.

Scotgrass is now established as one of the most important technical events in the UK calendar covering every aspect of grassland management for dairy, beef and sheep production. The new observation decks at the silage clamp were full all day, a tractor-trailer bus service delivered thousands to more than 100 acres of demonstration plots and as well as seeing the big machines in action, farmers were also hungry for advice and information.

The new Knowledge Transfer Centre proved a popular addition with the British Grassland Society, DairyCo, Ecosyl, Maize Growers’ Association, Quality Meat Scotland, SAC and SEPA all seeing a steady flow of enquiring producers throughout the day. There was also full attendance at theinternational forage management seminar, presented by Dr Shirley Heron, at SAC Crichton Royal’s Visitor Centre.

“Despite the poor growing conditions that have affected producers throughout the UK this spring, we were able to deliver enough grass for all the demonstrations and that brought a lot of interest in our grassland management techniques,” said Hugh.

“Crichton Royal is an ideal venue for knowledge transfer, we had grass, slurry, farm yard manure, fertiliser management, soil maintenance and waste management on show and over 150 people watched the afternoon milking. The traffic management changes were also a success and we got the huge crowd in and out of the site quickly, efficiently and safely.”