“Our first TerraGator worked for 1,600 hours last year and spread more than 75,000t of muck,” he told Farmers Guide. “I never imagined for one minute that it would do so much, so it came as quite a surprise when it proved so successful.

“That high throughput came at a price, though, which included working the TerraGator both day and night at the busiest times, which wasn’t always ideal.

“Adding the second TerraGator will give us the capacity to complete the work at a more comfortable pace, but there’s more to it than that,” he said. “By running the two TerraGators and our JCB loading shovel as a team, we’ll also be using the equipment and labour far more efficiently.

“As the new NVZ regulations start to bite, we’ll also be able to complete the work much more quickly if there are restrictions on when we can and can’t spread muck.”

Helped, no doubt, by high fertiliser prices, the first TerraGator has proved a hit with customers.

“It can carry up to 20t of muck at a time, but thanks to its four 1,050mm Michelin tyres you can hardly see where it’s been,” Mr Arnold said. “Even working fully loaded on arable land the tyres don’t plough up the ground like trailed spreaders.

“Last year about 80% of the muck we spread went onto arable land before cultivation, with 10% spread as a top dressing onto crops and the remaining 10% onto grassland.”

Featuring integrated weighing and gps, the TerraGator and muck spreader is controlled via Challenger’s Falcon VT controller, which gives touch-screen access to all settings.

“The system is easy to use and to set-up for any material we are asked to spread, Mr Arnold said, “and once the job’s done the Falcon VT allows us to download the data from the day’s work and take it back to the office for analysis.

“One of benefits of this is that we can print out maps showing exactly where the muck has been spread and how much has been applied. We send the maps out with our bills as they are a useful record for managing NVZs and they also specify exactly how much muck has been applied in total.

“We are the only contractor in the country with machines that can weigh, map, vari-rate and download in one.”

Mr Arnold has been very impressed by the accuracy of the TerraGator so far.

“On one farm the muck had been weighed on its way to the field and we knew there was almost exactly 200t to spread on the field,” he said. “The Falcon VT was set up to spread all the muck on the field and when we finished there was less than half a bucketload left.

“That’s the kind of accuracy you can expect from the TerraGator, and we’ll be checking the weighcells annually to make sure they stay that way.”

A new service being offered by O Arnold this year is muck analysis. Customers will be sent special muck analysis bags that can be used to send a sample of muck to Frontier, at Swaffham, where it will be analysed of its nutrient levels.

“Then, when we turn up on the farm, the customer can give us the analysis and we can set up the TerraGators to apply at the most appropriate rate,” Mr Arnold said.

Although O Arnold has only been muck spreading for two years, the company’s operators have both been in the business for 20 years.

“I couldn’t have a better team working on the job,” he said. “Tim Morter, who drives the TerraGator, and Simon Palmer (Winnie), who operates the loader have a lifetime’s experience between them and they have been the key to making this venture a success.

A map is sent out with every invoice to show exactly where, and how much, muck was spread.	The O Arnold muck-spreading team includes Tim (left) and Simon. Both have more than 20 years experience in the business.

One satisfied customer is Rob Alexander, of Pulham Market, Norfolk, who told Farmers Guide that he couldn’t fault the service from the O Arnold muck-spreading team.

“I like the low ground pressure and the evenness and width of spread,” he said, “as well as the flexibility to be here when I need them.

“But just as important, if not more so, is the reassurance we have that if there’s an NVZ inspection as the application maps supplied from the TerraGator give a full account of where the muck has gone. That not only provides piece of mind to us, but also the owners of the units that we farm under contract.

“We used to spread all our own muck, but we could never achieve the same output as Oliver’s team so it better to let them get on with it and we can concentrate on cultivation work.”

O Arnold operates throughout East Anglia, using an artic and low loader for the bigger moves to keep downtime to a minimum. For more information visit the company’s stand at this year’s Royal Norfolk Show, or call 01603 866226 or 07768 766742.