SPRING may be the time when a smallholder's fancy may turn towards buying a new piece of machinery - and there's plenty of it about.

If you wash potatoes and other root crops by hand in a tub to add some value to your produce then the Cleanwash 25 might be worth considering as a long-term investment.

Ni Agri Engineering at Station Road, Lakenheath, Suffolk, is selling a 25kg capacity washer which only requires the operator to tip the potatoes or root vegetables into a hopper and then empty the crop into a suitable container.

The crop is retained in the hopper while an endless rubber conveyor driven by an electric motor washes it and, when clean, the crop can be rinsed before it is conveyed on to the draining table to dry while the next batch is washed.

The price is £1,450 but it would certainly make life easier especially on a cold winter's morning.

How about leaving the spade in the shed and changing to mechanical digging while sitting on a tractor seat or walking between the handlebars of a two-wheel tractor?

The Imants BM spading machine from Holland and shown at LAMMA by Salmac Limited of Bognor Regis can, with a special coupling, be hitched to a two or four-wheeled tractor with up to 15hp under the bonnet.

Four models of this spading machine with 62cm to 1.2m digging widths are available and, depending on soil type, they will work to a depth of 15 to 25cm.

The manufacturers recommend a 15 to 25hp compact tractor for their largest model with a 1.2m working width and digging depth of up to 35cm.

The same company also markets the Imants JNC rotary cultivator with a rear crumbler bar, suitable for nursery work.