Grassland 17: To the ‘max’ The most strikingly unusual machine on display in the muck and slurry area was a monstrous trailed injector unit with an in-built umbilical reeler from Veenhuis. Meet Rotomax. It’s a clever piece of kit that can unwind its lay-flat pipe as the rig moves up the field and reel it back in when it comes back up the next bout. To do that, a gantry-type swivelling arm lays the hose to one side of each run, adjacent to the next. Key advantage to this is that the pipe remains static on the ground unlike a conventional drag hose. Not only does this minimise crop damage but it also reduces wear and tear on the 125mm (5in) pipe. It also means there’s less tractive effort required, so a unit with a 12m injector only requires a tractor of 150hp up front, according to the company.  And then there’s the time saving of not having to set up and pack up pipework – a no-brainer it would seem … OK, so there is a cost: the rig retails at €250,000 new, although there is the option of sourcing reconditioned units from the Continent.  Bury St Edmunds firm TWS is running a second-hand Rotomax of its own, predominantly to serve biogas plants, and is now acting as the UK agent for Veenhuis. Travelling at 10-12km/hr and pumping a maximum of 200m³/hr, TWS is generally achieving daily work rates of 1,200-1,500 m³/day. At the moment there’s just a disc injector on offer, though the Dutch manufacturer is currently putting together a wavy disc set-up for working in rowcrops such as maize and sugar beet.