Busy spreading lime, like many Irish farmers and contractors across the country in recent weeks, Andrew Burke is based in Clogherhead, Co Louth.
Andrew heads up his own agricultural contracting business, offering customers unique services specialising in variable-rate lime and fertiliser spreading on behalf of Drummonds.
Since he started contracting in the early 2000s, Andrew has always been a one-man band, making the best use of his own time and focusing on providing a unique service.
Having always had an interest in machinery, Andrew purchased his first tractor in 2000, a Case IH MX135, which he used predominately for slurry and other haulage work.
In 2004, Drummonds approached him to see if he would be interested in purchasing a trailed fertiliser spreader to contract-spread on their behalf.
Andrew took up the offer and, at that stage, had upgraded his Case IH MX135 to a new Fendt 716 Vario tractor, which he soon paired with a new Bredal K85 trailed fertiliser spreader.
Fast forward 17 years and Andrew is still bulk spreading for Drummonds, although not everything has remained the same.
The grab will lift in region of 400kg to 500kg at a time.
Andrew decided to go down the route of offering a precision service and applying fertiliser by means of a variable-rate application.
Variable rate
This was something Andrew invested time and money into setting up, which, with hindsight, has been a good success.
Given his location, he finds the majority of his customers are tillage farmers, in particular vegetable growers.
“There is quite a bit more work involved in variable-rate spreading as a variable-rate map needs to be created first. This is done by soil-sampling.
“I use a John Deere Gator to go out and take the cores. To get an accurate representation of the field, multiple samples are taken within each hectare block.
“Each sample position is then linked through GPS on a platform called Soyl and sent for testing.
“After analysis, I receive a file that is compatible with the Bredal spreader and displayed on the iPad. This map is the variable-rate prescription that the field requires.
“From here, the spreader adjusts the application rate on the go by means of altering floor belt speed.”
This, Andrew said, exposed him to a niche customer base that required the precise placement of chemical fertilisers.
The booms allow a larger percentage of lime to drop to the surface, keeping dust down.
Lime and spreader
The transition to variable-rate fertiliser spreading later opened up the door to the application of lime in a similar fashion.
In 2015, Andrew decided to buy a secondhand Bredal K85 spreader for lime spreading.
The machine was retrofitted with weigh cells and set up for variable-rate spread using the same system his other K85 used. The approach to creating the variable rate maps is the same as it is for the fertiliser application.
Today, variable-rate lime spreading accounts for a large proportion of Andrew’s work, predominantly among tillage farmers in the north Dublin and Louth region.
He noted that after soil sampling, it is common for fields to have varying needs for lime – one particular area might be too acidic, while another area might be borderline alkaline.
“Applying excess lime can increase soil pH too much and potentially lock up other elements in the soil and therefore have a negative effect on a crop’s performance.”
The spreader
Wanting to remain a one-man band, Andrew sourced a spreader with a Botex 560 TL self-loading crane and clamshell bucket.
This meant that he didn’t need to bring along his own loader, nor would he need to rely on farmers to be available with a loader. The crane is chassis-mounted on the extended drawbar and has its own jack legs for stability while filling.
“The crane might not be the fastest way of loading, but it leaves me independent. It will lift anywhere between 400kg and 500kg per grab full and the spreader will hold anywhere between 8t to 10t, depending on how full you want to fill it.
“The grab was originally operated using a manual valve chest from the back window of the tractor, which meant I had to kneel on the seat and lean out the window – it just wasn’t ideal and I’d end up destroyed with dust.
“So, I decided to swap out the valve chest for a solenoid-operated valve block, which came off a sprayer. Now the grab [can] be operated using two joysticks from the driver’s seat.
“The only issue was that movements of the joysticks were not proportional and therefore quite abrupt, the valves were either fully open or fully closed – it was hard to use the grab smoothly. To overcome this cheaply, a restrictor valve was the best solution, to reduce oil flow,” Andrew said.
Keeping dust down
The farms Andrew spreads on tend to be in reasonably built-up areas, which meant he was faced early on with dust complaints while spreading.
Having looked at possible ways to overcome the issue of dust, he had seen that Bredal offered an applicator boom that works using an auger, dropping lime across the entire 12m working width with a curtain to help deflect it on to the surface.
But this wasn’t going to work, mainly for two reasons.
Firstly, Bredal didn’t offer it as a retrofit option and secondly, there was a possibility of stones making their way into the auger as lime is more often than not dumped in the field where it’s going to be spread. Aside from that he was unsure whether the auger system would work as well for variable rate applications.
To overcome the issue, Andrew had a 12m frame manufactured to carry an enclosed canvas curtain.
So, when the discs began spreading, lime would be deflected by the curtain and fall to the ground.
Andrew said: “This approach was a major improvement and not only did it keep the dust down; it helped stop the loss of the finer lime, which was being lost to the air.
“Now it was making it to the surface, 80% of it anyway. This allowed me to spread a finer grade of lime.
“Finer lime is faster-acting and therefore is popular among particular customers on rented ground, so that results can be seen much quicker.”
Andrew explained how at the start the canvas wore quickly from the lime, so he refitted it with a light rubberised material which has since proved much more durable.
A slight downside of the curtains is that when lime is very damp, it can stick to the canopy and eventually fall off in lumps. But, when this happens, it is possible to fold up the 12m gull-wing booms and spread conventionally.
Verdict
Things are quite busy at the moment for Andrew, between spreading lime on stubble ground and sowing cover crops.
“Given that the lime spreading service I provide is more specialised, output would be lower than your typical contractor. On an average day, I’d spread anywhere between 100t and 150t. It definitely has its place.
“For example, I had one farmer that was going to blanket-spread lime, but in the end decided to soil-sample and variable-rate spread. What would have been a 340t blanket application turned out to be only 95t variable application. This is where a substantial saving was made, aside from the possibility of locking up other nutrients in the soil.
“The only down side of the grab is that I need to be very close to the pile of lime, so I use the blade on the front linkage to keep it heaped.
“Other than general maintenance of the Bredal spreaders, they’ve performed well over the years and been reasonably cheap to run. I’ve three Fendts – a 720 Vario, an 818 Vario and an older Favorit 612. The 612 is now as good as retired, with the 720 on the fertiliser spreader and the 818 on the lime spreader. Fendt tractors suit me well given the high power to weight ratio and the Vario transmission and, to be fair, since I started with them in the early 2000s, I can’t say a bad word about them.”
Spec
Model: Bredal K85. Capacity: 6.60m3.Spreading width: 12m.Application type: variable rate.Crane: Botex 6m telescopic.Lift capacity: 2,000kg (at 2m) 700kg (at 6m).
Busy spreading lime, like many Irish farmers and contractors across the country in recent weeks, Andrew Burke is based in Clogherhead, Co Louth.
Andrew heads up his own agricultural contracting business, offering customers unique services specialising in variable-rate lime and fertiliser spreading on behalf of Drummonds.
Since he started contracting in the early 2000s, Andrew has always been a one-man band, making the best use of his own time and focusing on providing a unique service.
Having always had an interest in machinery, Andrew purchased his first tractor in 2000, a Case IH MX135, which he used predominately for slurry and other haulage work.
In 2004, Drummonds approached him to see if he would be interested in purchasing a trailed fertiliser spreader to contract-spread on their behalf.
Andrew took up the offer and, at that stage, had upgraded his Case IH MX135 to a new Fendt 716 Vario tractor, which he soon paired with a new Bredal K85 trailed fertiliser spreader.
Fast forward 17 years and Andrew is still bulk spreading for Drummonds, although not everything has remained the same.
The grab will lift in region of 400kg to 500kg at a time.
Andrew decided to go down the route of offering a precision service and applying fertiliser by means of a variable-rate application.
Variable rate
This was something Andrew invested time and money into setting up, which, with hindsight, has been a good success.
Given his location, he finds the majority of his customers are tillage farmers, in particular vegetable growers.
“There is quite a bit more work involved in variable-rate spreading as a variable-rate map needs to be created first. This is done by soil-sampling.
“I use a John Deere Gator to go out and take the cores. To get an accurate representation of the field, multiple samples are taken within each hectare block.
“Each sample position is then linked through GPS on a platform called Soyl and sent for testing.
“After analysis, I receive a file that is compatible with the Bredal spreader and displayed on the iPad. This map is the variable-rate prescription that the field requires.
“From here, the spreader adjusts the application rate on the go by means of altering floor belt speed.”
This, Andrew said, exposed him to a niche customer base that required the precise placement of chemical fertilisers.
The booms allow a larger percentage of lime to drop to the surface, keeping dust down.
Lime and spreader
The transition to variable-rate fertiliser spreading later opened up the door to the application of lime in a similar fashion.
In 2015, Andrew decided to buy a secondhand Bredal K85 spreader for lime spreading.
The machine was retrofitted with weigh cells and set up for variable-rate spread using the same system his other K85 used. The approach to creating the variable rate maps is the same as it is for the fertiliser application.
Today, variable-rate lime spreading accounts for a large proportion of Andrew’s work, predominantly among tillage farmers in the north Dublin and Louth region.
He noted that after soil sampling, it is common for fields to have varying needs for lime – one particular area might be too acidic, while another area might be borderline alkaline.
“Applying excess lime can increase soil pH too much and potentially lock up other elements in the soil and therefore have a negative effect on a crop’s performance.”
The spreader
Wanting to remain a one-man band, Andrew sourced a spreader with a Botex 560 TL self-loading crane and clamshell bucket.
This meant that he didn’t need to bring along his own loader, nor would he need to rely on farmers to be available with a loader. The crane is chassis-mounted on the extended drawbar and has its own jack legs for stability while filling.
“The crane might not be the fastest way of loading, but it leaves me independent. It will lift anywhere between 400kg and 500kg per grab full and the spreader will hold anywhere between 8t to 10t, depending on how full you want to fill it.
“The grab was originally operated using a manual valve chest from the back window of the tractor, which meant I had to kneel on the seat and lean out the window – it just wasn’t ideal and I’d end up destroyed with dust.
“So, I decided to swap out the valve chest for a solenoid-operated valve block, which came off a sprayer. Now the grab [can] be operated using two joysticks from the driver’s seat.
“The only issue was that movements of the joysticks were not proportional and therefore quite abrupt, the valves were either fully open or fully closed – it was hard to use the grab smoothly. To overcome this cheaply, a restrictor valve was the best solution, to reduce oil flow,” Andrew said.
Keeping dust down
The farms Andrew spreads on tend to be in reasonably built-up areas, which meant he was faced early on with dust complaints while spreading.
Having looked at possible ways to overcome the issue of dust, he had seen that Bredal offered an applicator boom that works using an auger, dropping lime across the entire 12m working width with a curtain to help deflect it on to the surface.
But this wasn’t going to work, mainly for two reasons.
Firstly, Bredal didn’t offer it as a retrofit option and secondly, there was a possibility of stones making their way into the auger as lime is more often than not dumped in the field where it’s going to be spread. Aside from that he was unsure whether the auger system would work as well for variable rate applications.
To overcome the issue, Andrew had a 12m frame manufactured to carry an enclosed canvas curtain.
So, when the discs began spreading, lime would be deflected by the curtain and fall to the ground.
Andrew said: “This approach was a major improvement and not only did it keep the dust down; it helped stop the loss of the finer lime, which was being lost to the air.
“Now it was making it to the surface, 80% of it anyway. This allowed me to spread a finer grade of lime.
“Finer lime is faster-acting and therefore is popular among particular customers on rented ground, so that results can be seen much quicker.”
Andrew explained how at the start the canvas wore quickly from the lime, so he refitted it with a light rubberised material which has since proved much more durable.
A slight downside of the curtains is that when lime is very damp, it can stick to the canopy and eventually fall off in lumps. But, when this happens, it is possible to fold up the 12m gull-wing booms and spread conventionally.
Verdict
Things are quite busy at the moment for Andrew, between spreading lime on stubble ground and sowing cover crops.
“Given that the lime spreading service I provide is more specialised, output would be lower than your typical contractor. On an average day, I’d spread anywhere between 100t and 150t. It definitely has its place.
“For example, I had one farmer that was going to blanket-spread lime, but in the end decided to soil-sample and variable-rate spread. What would have been a 340t blanket application turned out to be only 95t variable application. This is where a substantial saving was made, aside from the possibility of locking up other nutrients in the soil.
“The only down side of the grab is that I need to be very close to the pile of lime, so I use the blade on the front linkage to keep it heaped.
“Other than general maintenance of the Bredal spreaders, they’ve performed well over the years and been reasonably cheap to run. I’ve three Fendts – a 720 Vario, an 818 Vario and an older Favorit 612. The 612 is now as good as retired, with the 720 on the fertiliser spreader and the 818 on the lime spreader. Fendt tractors suit me well given the high power to weight ratio and the Vario transmission and, to be fair, since I started with them in the early 2000s, I can’t say a bad word about them.”
Spec
Model: Bredal K85. Capacity: 6.60m3.Spreading width: 12m.Application type: variable rate.Crane: Botex 6m telescopic.Lift capacity: 2,000kg (at 2m) 700kg (at 6m). 
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