Ryan Bole is part of J Wilson Contracts in Co. Antrim. Available for all kinds of work from slurry to reseeding, sowing to silage, today they are ploughing for potatoes with two Amazone ploughs.  

Bole explained: “We moved to Amazone ploughs last spring.

"We bought the first one then, and we bought the slatted board plough late on at the tail end of the year, September/October-time, we done the back end ploughing with her.

“Whenever we got the first one, if she pleased us, we were always going to buy a second one because you have the same parts for the two of them.

"And thankfully she did please us, so that's why the two of them are here.”

The Amazone Cayros XMS is a mounted reversible plough with a cleverly designed turnover mechanism with easy adjustment and an excellent range of options.

This makes the Cayros XMS a versatile, universal plough for tractors up to 200hp.

It is available in 3 to 5 furrow with shear bolt stone safety release or automatic, hydraulic NonStop stone protection.

“John does 90% of the ploughing and has more patience than I'll ever have for it.” Ryan added.

“He will stop and clean, if the mouldboards are sticking at all, he's out cleaning them.

Ryan said that the first plough they bought was "solid board, 28 boards, or the same as 28 boards - they call them different but they're more or less the same as a 28 board.

“She has full spec like full hydraulic vari-width, hydraulic cross shaft, and anything that could be got on her is on her type of thing.

"And then the second one, she's just exactly the same apart for she's a slotted board. We do a wee bit of ploughing for potatoes and stuff and the slotted board would run a lot cleaner.”

Mechanical or hydraulic width adjustment is available on the Cayros.

The standard furrow width adjustment can be altered in four steps by manually pivoting the leg fixing consoles, or it can be hydraulically adjusted from the tractor using a display.

To increase the lift height of the plough, all lower link cross shafts can be optionally provided with an adaptor, which moves the cross-shaft into a lower position and thus increases ground clearance during turnover.

The lower link cross-shaft adaptor can be retrofitted at any time.

“With the solid board, you have the wee bits in the middle there so that's more flex in the board,,” Ryan explained.

“This soil here, you know, it's really, really good soil.

"Brilliant for potatoes, but that's the type of soil that you will get that'll stick in mouldboards. The better the soil the more risk you'll have sticking on the mouldboards.

“We find that solid board Amazone runs cleaner than the solid board Kverneland we had. Don't know why, but we just find that it does run cleaner.”

“The man that we do the ploughing for here wants us to plough the opposite way from what he's drilling because he thinks the ridge is better going the opposite way.

"So sometimes you have to maybe make points or start somewhere different. But get your straight hedge and your longest run and, you know, normally always go for that.

"But if we were ploughing this ground again for one passing, we would try and plough it the opposite way from what we have ploughed it this time, it sort of levels it a wee bit again,” Ryan explained.

The contractor also spoke about the maintenance of the machines.

“I actually think there's less maintenance in these ploughs than our previous; even the discs - there no grease nipples in the disc of that plough so it's just steel bearings in them," Ryan said.

"All the hinge points on her all has grease nipples, which I think it'll be a really good job.

“The last one, there was a lot of the places that was doing a lot of wear and had no grease nipples on them or no way of greasing them. They just wore until they come slack.

"But that there is well accessible grease points for the vari width points. So I think that should be a good job.”

According to Ryan, normally "you couldn't really run the two of them together".

"Here's fine because the soil is that light there's little difference on it, you know, but if you were in somewhere like heavier ground, it's hard to get the two ploughs to match up the identical same.

"But that's again that's the same across all makes or models,” he said.

It was the demonstrator plough that impressed them when they had access to it, according to the contractor.

“I suppose when we got the demonstrator that sealed it really," he said.

"We were well impressed with it, and after a week of the demonstrator out, I think we put in an order for one the next day or the day after it, to be honest.”

The Cayros mounted reversible ploughs from Amazone offer an exceptional quality of work and excellent value for money, giving cost-effective operation thanks to the extremely high quality of wearing metal and their ease of pull.

“We notice the output with the ploughs is definitely a vast improvement, and that's purely because you don't have to get in and out.

"The last plough, depending on where you were, you could have been out 50-100 times a day.

"When you count that over a period of time you're losing out on a lot of acres like really, whereas like honestly, them ploughs there, you get in and you drop them into the ground and go and set them and that's it,” Ryan said.

“The output's definitely one of the big advantages that we see," he stressed.

He explained that McMullan Agri is about three miles away from the contractor's own yard, "which is a big plus".

"I was very friendly with the boys before they ever started that business, and sometimes you can be reluctant on whether you want to buy off your friends or not, because they're plenty of days things get heated.

"But they are doing a great job, and with them sitting on our doorstep, it’s a definitely a big plus for us.

"You know if you need something, two minutes and you're up in the yard. It's great that way, definitely is.”