Merlo and Komatsu centre stage on McHale Plant Sales stand at FTMTA Punchstown show

  • The crossover relationship that has developed between certain items of farm machinery and those used in construction and materials handling is something that will be underlined at McHale Plant Sales stand at the forthcoming FTMTA Farm Machinery Show (Punchestown, July)

Showcased will be a number of models from the versatile Italian-made Merlo Turbofarmer range – units fast becoming the telehandler of choice on many Irish farms due to their ability to be equally at home as part of a farm contractor’s fleet, and in all aspects of farming, as they are in construction or industrial settings.

New to the FTMTA show will be the heavy duty Merlo TF65.9-170 – already proving to be a very popular choice for most agricultural applications such as hay, silage and grain handling. Straddling the divide between tractor and load-lifter, the highly adaptable machine features impressive load-lifting reach for stacking and storing silage round bales, baled straw, or bagged animal feed, combined with the pulling and driving power required to operate towed implements.

With over 170HP in some of the larger Turbofarmer machines, many are seen as an ideal alternative to wheel loaders  for filling silage pits, giving owners the advantage of a two-in-one machine with the capacity to handle a multiplicity of farm tasks. Also exhibiting will be a Merlo Panoramic model P40.17, complete with a lift capacity of 4 tonnes, a maximum lift height of 7m, and a drive speed of 35km/h.

From the Komatsu stable will be the WA100M-8 wheel loader. Fully-specified and fitted for agricultural use, it comes with interchangeable front bucket and fork attachments ideal for silage harvesting, pit building and grain harvesting. In addition, a unit on show that can be used in the off-season for many other material handling duties will be Komatsu’s robust, short-tail swing PC138US-11, one of Ireland’s best-selling excavators.