French firm Emily used to make fairly modestly sized mixer buckets, but canny farmers soon spotted the potential of having bigger versions that could act as a cheaper, simpler alternative to a mixer wagon.

Its latest Melodis model holds 7cu m of feed and is a true all-in-one machine. You drive up to the clamp, lower the rotating silage cutter to shave off a chunk of feed, add any other feeds or concentrates and then let it do the mixing. Finally you head straight off to the feed barrier to discharge it from either side of the bucket.

It’s a reasonably big machine so needs to go on a wheeled loader rather than a telescopic handler. All the drives are hydraulically powered, so you need a 60 litres/min oil flow, too. Cost of the unit in France is expected to be about €30,000 (£25,800).

The firm says you can feed 400 cows in an hour.

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