United Kingdom, R C Baker Ltd

Charlie Baker, R C Baker Ltd, Barford St Michael, Oxfordshire

Such is the versatility of the XERION, Oxfordshire contractor Charlie Baker now runs a fleet of three 388hp XERION 3800s, the most recent of which has been bought specifically for use with the first 24,000 litre (24m3) capacity Kaweco slurry tanker to be sold in the UK.

The massive increase in the cost of fertiliser, combined with stricter environmental controls, has prompted a lot of livestock farmers to look at slurry in a new light and not as a waste product that needs to be got rid off.

In all respects the XERION and Kaweco tanker combination is impressive, and Charlie comments that without fail customers have been staggered no only by its output and how lightly the combination treads, but also by how quick the grass response is to treatment.

Equipped with a 7m wide disc injector unit, the whole combination is 16 metres long. The tanker is fitted with a 150 litre/second pump and can be filled using either a pipe or a turbo arm controlled from the cab. In addition it has cameras on the arm and at the back, plus it has a steering rear-axle, which in combination with the all-wheel steering on the XERION makes the combination extremely manoeuvrable.

“The main reason for buying the KAWECO combination was its output and quality of build. Using the turbo arm, the tanker can be filled in about 2½ minutes and in the field is emptied in about 8 minutes. Using CEBIS and the tanker’s own control unit we have total control over application rate, etc, and can then provide all the paperwork showing what has been applied. In addition it has superb brakes and you can feel them stopping the tractor.”

“Unlike a large trailed tanker which is just a dead-weight behind the tractor, the Kaweco is purpose built for the XERION and connected using a 110mm ball head swanneck coupling. This effectively transfers a third of the tanker’s weight onto the middle of the XERION, so it is evenly spread over the tanker’s twin axles and the four even sized 710 tyres on the XERION. The tanker is also split into three compartments, with the front tank emptied last so weight is kept on the XERION. Even when fully loaded the combination hardly leaves a mark. Obviously fully loaded it is too heavy to go on the road, so we use nurse-tanks to keep it supplied, aside from the fact that its job is to inject slurry and it is far too expensive to waste time on roadwork.”

“By injecting the slurry rather than using a splash plate, you are placing the slurry exactly where it is needed and the response is far quicker. With surface dressing you loose about 35% of the nutritional benefit, plus smell can also be a problem. The other great benefit for dairy farmers is that having injected the slurry it disappears in about an hour, so if necessary cattle can be turned straight back out onto the grass when we have finished.”

“A lorry load of Nitram costs a lot of money, but depending on dilution, cattle slurry has a value of about £7/cu3 so it is a valuable product and I now have a number of dairy farmers who are using no bought-in fertiliser at all.”

At peak periods, such as after first cut silage, in order to keep pace with demand it is probable that the combination will be worked 24 hours a day, so has been equipped with the tripod mounted BASELINE HD system so that it can be accurately steered after dark.

“The XERION is an unbelievable tractor. I would be lost without it and the engine management system means that it is extremely fuel efficient.”