smithy

Where I lift some sugar beet on sunday morning it is so hard I cant plough it so this afternoon I had a go with the pigtails will need a second pass maybe 3 might run the subsoiler though it in next few days if I get time as I think I am going to be loading beet for a couple of days will get a call first thing in morning

I went with a mate of mine this morning up near ELY to test drive these machines and collect my Nroso points also had loads of coffee and was given one of the biggest hog roast rolls I have ever seen all from HARDI on there HARDI CROP CARE DEMO DAY

Dark clouds up above but no rain while I ploughed next years sugar beet land last Saturday

spent a few hrs doing this the last few weeks and still got a bit more to do if I can break the clods a bit more as we still not had any rain to speak off

Thanks trigger, I have a lot on the next few days with drilling and rolling etc but am sure I have seen a list on some other website off the people/tractors that was there will see if I can find it again

Yes that is a Ireland flag you can see I have seen a list printed somewhere of the names of the exhibiter's will have a look to see if I can find it again , not sure how many J/D was there in total but was all john deere stuff including all of the lawn mower range and gators

Was a last minuet decision to go but clad I did there was name tags on all the machines as to the present owners and some had the names of the 1st dealers that supplied them think I have seen a list on some other website will have a look to see if I can find it in next few days

No problem Paul

Last ones from what was a good day out, I had a email come from j/d say that they had 14,000 visitors' over the two days there was a lot more tractors there then I took pictures off

a few more from the open weekend

Bit late posting this one but I went to the JOHN DEERE 50th Anniversary last weekend here is a few pictures

Been clocking up a few hr on this last few days

Nice additions you have there Paul , a farm near me had a pair of them Bamford Wufflers a yellow one like yours and a blue one , I can remember using them several years ago the drive belt on the side used to run with a twist in it to get it round the corner of the machine which most of the time was ok but now and again would turn upside down and tack the edges of the belt had to keep your eye out for bit of smoke coming out from behind the guard

Yes he was very lucky but he is up and about but not allowed to drive at moment as for me if it don't rain on sunday I plan to start drilling wheat been giving some fields a second pass with press last few days as well as spreading slug-pellets and bit of spraying on stubbles where next years sugar beet are going we will also have about 30 acres of spring barley on one field where there is some black grass,as for winter crops ,wheat/barley/beans I have about 170 acres of my own to do and depends on weather if it turns wet I have some to do for 2 neighbour's as I have a Maschio/Accord combination drill

Yes very lucky as his blood was starting to clot and had to fly him in helicopter to hospital pretty quick

Been ploughing again ground is a bit softer since the rain on Friday ,also spent a few hrs checking over the combination drill as plan to start drilling over the weekend also had a quick visit to a mate of mine that has just come out of hospital as about 2 weeks ago he cut down a tree which landed exactly where he wonted it on the edge of a ditch he got in the ditch to clear out some rubbish and tree rolled on top of him and brock his collar-bone and stopped the blood supplies to his other arm he was found by 2 people out walking about 2hrs after it had happened was in hospital a little while as he got blood-poisoning but home now and on the mend may have to go and do some of his work to help out

I have 30 acres(12hectares) all in one field and about 2 acres of it is nice soil and a bit has grown on it the rest is clay and there is just the volunteer cereal growing nothing else so looks like no rape for me this year , cost for seed+sowing+fertilizer +3 flea beetle sprays is about £2500

ouch bet you don't do it again

At this moment not really sure what to do if it keeps warm might be able to reseed with rape but it probable would struggle all winter will talk to my 2 agronomist next week have already talked about the possibility of ploughing in some beans in October but trying not to think about it too much at moment as it is a big loss to me in crop and ££££

Just caught up on your posts Alex clad to see you finished with cereal harvest mine sounds like yours wheat ok but don't ask about rape or barley as for the rape we planted about 4 weeks ago until yesterday we not had any rain for over 6 weeks (had 28mm yesterday) a few bits have grown sprayed it 3 times for flea beetle but they have eaten most of it so probably a right off , but that's farming

Some more pictures from the demo the tractor off the ground was connected to some controls in the tent next to it so you could practise setting up all the controls as in headland-management /auto gear changes . Some of the demo team had been over here for 4 weeks from Austria but was flying home over weekend and some more flying out to do the Scotland show then I think they said moving it all to Denmark

I received a email from CNH INDUSTRIAL ST. VALENTIN-AUSTRIA on Monday this week inviting me to one of there 3 road-shows that they was putting on ,one on Tuesday at Cirencester ,one on Friday at Harlton,Cambridge and one next week somewhere in Scotland . So as it spoke of being wet on Friday and Cambridge being the closes I replied saying yes so me being me set of very early to allow for traffic and was one of the first to get there even before a lot of the reps from all the case dealers in the area but the coffee/bacon buttie van was on the go and was free so I dived in and then my Goodwin turned up so had a quick hello with him before going of to test drive the tractors of which I drove every one some of them twice it started to rain about 11ish so went and got another coffee and pork roll this time and was then told that some other farmers from my area was planning on being there in the afternoon so went and got another coffee/hog-roast roll and waited as by now it was raining hard and I know that I could not be doing any land work back home so went for some more drives in the machines and spoke to the farmers from my area and some from all round the local area ,anyway after most of them had gone and after appox 30mm of rain me and a demonstrator driver took the Quadtrac out again and sunk the machine we was pulling into the ground and set off on what was very wet ground but it pulled it and only had 6% track-slip I had more than that trying to walk across the field anyway it was then time to make my way home with very wet/muddie boots and another pork roll but no coffee as you cant drink and drive