Ploughing a mix of grass and arable land in often tricky Fermanagh conditions, William Lee and his sons, Adam and Harvey decided to upgrade their ploughs for two Amazone Cayros XMS V four-furrow models for the 2024 season.

Based on the outskirts of Enniskillen in the village of Bellanaleck, the Lees milk in the region of 200 cows alongside running a large agricultural contracting business.

In order to keep on top of the workload and manage tight weather windows, the Fermanagh business run two self-propelled silage outfits and three umbilical slurry systems.

While slurry and grassland related work are the core operations, arable operations continue to grow too. The team also run three diggers on hire.

The number of acres being ploughed is one that continues to grow steadily for the Lees.

“So far, this year we’ve ploughed in the region of 400 acres which isn’t bad going for this part of the country,” said William. William bought his first plough over 40 years ago, a three-furrow conventional model.

A few years later this was upgraded to a four-furrow Kverneland which was kept for five years and then replaced with a three furrow Kverneland reversible model.

In 2004, when purchasing his current Kuhn one pass, William had stumbled across a Kuhn four-furrow reversible plough which he decided to buy too. Later on, a second Kuhn reversible plough joined the fleet, replacing the older three-furrow Kverneland.

“The Kuhn ploughs were good machines. However, the five-furrow was a little on the big side for the majority of land we work. For that reason, it ended up parked most of the time.

“Even at that, the four-furrow Kuhn was a long plough in comparison to our current Amazones. While the extra length meant more weight, having more space between each mould board did mean that trash could flow better,” William outlined.

Running 12 Massey Ferguson tractors and having never run anything else, it’s not that the Lees are creatures of habit but more so they take the ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it approach’. “Within reason we try to keep the number of brands limited to streamline servicing and parts etc. If a product is good and service is good then we tend to stick with it. I’ve only ever run Massey tractors and John Deere foragers. Both are good products and the dealers offer great backup.

“We also run all Krone grass equipment supplied by Irwin Brothers. This was how we got first introduced to the Amazone brand. We now run two 3m Amazone power harrows and a 15m mounted Amazone sprayer. Most importantly, it’s well built and reliable kit,” William pointed out.

Last year due to little use, the Fermanagh trio decided to upgrade the five furrow Kuhn plough. Having heard good reports and impressed by the build quality of the Amazone Cayros plough, William discussed the potential of trading in his Kuhn for a new four-furrow Cayros model. “Stephen Irwin came out, looked at our plough, priced it fairly and we did a deal on a four-furrow Cayros XMS V model.”

With a backlog of work carried over due to last year’s poor weather and ground conditions, William decided to purchase an identical second Amazone Cayros XMS V plough.

The Cayros V is Amazone’s trusty mounted plough range for tractors from 120hp to 380hp, available in three, four, five and six-furrow configurations. Looking closer, Amazone positions the XMS as its premium model within the upper to middle class. It is available in three, four and five-furrow variants with shear bolt or hydraulic non-stop stone protection.

Given the land typically worked, William and Co decided to fully spec both ploughs in an effort to make the task easier, whether it’s ploughing old permanent ley ground or trashy stubble land.

This sees both ploughs equipped with hydraulic front furrow adjustment, hydraulic furrow width adjustment, G1 skimmers and a full set of 500mm smooth disc coulters.

Hydraulic stone protection is a must according to William given that the land worked can be stony.

Integral to the durability and build quality of the four-furrow Cayros models is its 8mm thick 150mm x 100mm main beam. Five-furrow models have a beam wall thickness of 12mm. The 200hp rated Cayros XMS V headstock features a 100mm solid turnover shaft seated on adjustable taper roller bearings. Again, the design is easily greased.

A key feature liked by William is the fact that the plough’s vari-width linkage is not integrated within the main beam but to one side meaning the strength of the beam is not affected.

From a practical point of view, all pivot points are accessible from the side for lubrication purposes.

The ploughs have a base weight of 1,240kg. William opts to run Amazone’s WXL 430 mould boards which are said to be a competitor board to the widely popular Kverneland no 28.

“Regardless, if it’s shallow or deep ploughing, the WXL 430 boards prove to be top class. They’re a good long board and allow for good soil flow.

“They allow us to plough with 650mm tyres with no issue,” William said. So far wear appears even, with no hot spotting anywhere on the boards.

Another benefit is the addition of two stays at the rear of each mould board.

William feels that wearing metal is another strong point of the Amazone brand, noting that the points are not only thicker but have better wear properties.

Although both ploughs naturally pull very straight as William pointed out, the pull point can be manually adjusted. On the topic of adjustment, the lads are pleased by how easy adjustments can be made. “To adjust the width of the front furrow, the headstock slides across laterally whereas with some brands, the whole plough swings, affecting the performance of the rear furrows.”

As the operator adjusts furrow width hydraulically across the display scale range, the pull point and front furrow width are automatically adjusted thanks to the designs integrated kinematics. No other correction is necessary.

As alluded to earlier, William’s ploughs are equipped with the hydraulic stone protection. What’s important about this feature is that trip pressures are easily adjusted for varying ground types. To adjust the leg trip pressure, the spool is engaged to increase or decrease oil pressure as required. A lever valve is then shut off at the desired pressure on the pressure clock. This is all done quickly at the headstock of the plough. Alternatively, leg pressures can be set individually. These models also feature a backup shear bolt protection system.

When reversing the plough, a memory cylinder automatically adjusts furrow width to its narrowest to increase clearances before completing the reverse cycle and returning to the set working width. The rear 600mm support wheel features a damper to smoothen its transition during the reverse cycle.

“So far, we’re happy having bought the Amazone Cayros ploughs. It’s reasonably early yet but we can’t find fault with them. Before being branded Amazone, Vogel and Noot were always a good plough.

“We’ve ploughed around 400 acres of mixed land types from shallow clays to peaty soils and a mix of terrain types, hills, side slopes etc – ideal conditions to test any plough. To be fair, the Cayros XMS V has handled all without fault. Traditionally this part of the country would be known for being quite hard on wearing metal too. But, so far we’re impressed with how long points are lasting.

Importantly, they’re a cleverly designed plough, strongly built and pull well. The auto reset design is very quiet.

“There’s times, if you weren’t watching it could have tripped without notice.

“We’ll run these two ploughs on for a good number of years but so far I’d have no reason not to buy another,” William outlined.