Orders are beginning to stack up for a North Yorkshire agricultural equipment business.

Walton Agriculture, of East Cowton, near Northallerton, has sold its first Eclipse bale stacker and transport.

The machine is believed to be the first in the world to allow the stacking of different sized bales of hay or straw.

The company, which won a DTI Smart award to develop the machine in 1999, is also set to tie up deals with another five UK farms. It expects to sell about 15 of the machines every year.

Farmer and bailing contractor George Peacock has taken the first machine.

Mr Peacock, whose farm is at Knayton, near Thirsk, said: "The beauty of the Eclipse is that, unlike existing stacking systems, you don't need to make a number of trips around the field to pick up the different-sized bales. We have estimated that it could halve both the time it takes to stack bales and our labour requirements."

Walton Agriculture managing director John Walton said: "This is the first of what we hope will be many orders, both in the UK and abroad for the machine.

"The signs are already very promising, with negotiations already under way for the sale of five more and we are planning to take on further staff to deal with the demand. This would not have been possible without the Smart award and we owe Roger Benson at Business Link York and North Yorkshire a lot for his help in winning it."

Business Link York and North Yorkshire innovation and technology advisor Roger Benson, who has guided 77 companies to secure £3.1m in Smart awards in the past four years, said he had been delighted to help