Oakley Farms

Pulled down 88 acres of wholecrop rye stubble with the Topdown today and drilled with the seasons first cover crop mix, rolling tomorrow to preserve moisture in this hot weather. Rape is burning off lovely now, counting down the days now before the beasts roll

Compost hauling now finished, so silage sides are now off ready for harvest. Washed off, greased, serviced and ready for pre harvest inspection. Combines are having their final preps done, still some work to do on the headers. Dessicating rapeseed is still gently ongoing, not wishing for it all to come at once, off in the sprayer today and come back in the yard to find......

Monday 11th July First block of OSR dessicated today, using Pod-Stik again this year. 203 acres at Atherstone is the only block ready at the moment-south facing on a hill has helped, possibly start again the second half of the week so the countdown to harvest has really started! Also today saw the new fleet of tractors arrive ready, 939 has been sold for a black 724, the black 828 has gone to Ireland and we now have a new green one, both existing 724's we had have just been replaced like for like as they were second hand to us last year. This years hire tractor also arrived today for the harvest student, green 720. Just trailers and chaser to arrive now!

Cheers chap, eager to get going down here, suspense is building and looking forward to starting Harvest Log 2016

88 acres of wholecrop complete in one day thanks to Orchard Contractors. Maus worked an absolute treat. Back on the compost today and blight spraying. The biggest test this week however is my patience on when to start dessicating rape, I think it's about a week away but have seen 2 sprayers on already. Time to make a phone call to Horsch, Redlynch and Richard Western I think

Cleaned, greased and ready to rock n roll

This morning on farm we are getting things ready for Monday when we are due to cut our 90 acres of Hybrid Rye. Using the Maus and ejector trailers as things are sticky, have 4 trailers and 3 lorries ready for the road haulage. Looking over Lexion 1 too.

Spotted this online today for all you fellow Lexion lovers.....monster 795

Pre Harvest Update That time of year where the countdown to harvest 2016 is well underway and we have lots to do! Grainstores need cleaning and fumigation, combines need some prep, trailers need servicing, dryer needs servicing, compost needs hauling, the list goes on.... Oilseed rape fields are being closely monitored for dessication timings, sunshine is much needed however. There will be a fleet update before the combines roll, 3 new 724's and one new 828 are on the way, chopping out the black 939 and 828. No idea what the colours of the new ones are yet. 4 new trailers are to be delivered and a Horsch Chaser. Harvest student starts next week and Alyvdas will also return.

BOR made it a few years back

A cracking day out had at Cereals, caught up with some good friends, Smithy, Dan, Sam & Jamie. Compost hauling is still ongoing, T3's are about to start when weather allows, beans needing doing now too then before we know it Rape will want dessicating. Got one of the combines out on Friday for a look through until we have a tidy up in the grain store to get both out and look through properly. Approx 1500 acres of straw has been sold to local contractor leaving 1000 acres roughly left so if any other 1:32 farmers are interested, get in touch!

Great idea with the pink wrap, again bringing real life to 1:32. Too job

A bit quieter on farm at the mo, just finished a foliar feed for the maize, post emergance herbicide currently going on, a break tomorrow however to do a blight spray on potatoes. T3 isn't far away either. Just wrapped up helping orchard with fodder beet so it's now time to stock pile some compost from Dimmer site down to Atherstone yard, 4 trailers on is making good use the slack period before harvest. Mark is on with irrigation now, just finishing up laying pipes before the reels get going. Looking forward to a day out at Cereals next week.

Well it's out with one job and straight in with another, with the last headlands of potatoes in the ground it was a quick wash off of kit, Grand Prix wheel changes, silage trailers hitched up and ready to go, today we picked up 100 acres of first cut at Wigborough, Orchards Krone taking some keeping up with, so our 2 trailers join his fleet, every load coming back over the weighbridge before being clamped in field at our place this year. It will then be sold back as required by lorry. North Cadbury tomorrow and finishing up around home on Friday.

Smart looking fleet Dave, nice to see some jcb's about

A little update, maize drilling finished a week ago for ourselves destined for AD, power Harrow and drill now on for Orchard Contractors to help out. Now on the home straight with spud planting, all straight work now finished just in time before being rained off, two headlands left and that's that job under wraps. Half way through T2 now which is going on on time which is excellent, it's worked hard to get back on track being double shifted night and day. Next on the cards is first cut for AD hopefully next week book the contractors in.

Rain stops play in Somerset, however it's doing some good. Approx 200 acres of maize left to drill for ourselves out of 1.400 which has gone into some lovely seedbeds, 64 acres of potatoes left to put in, a week will clear that up no problem, we were very impressed with the Challenger MT775E and worked well freeing up the 939 to use on helping working down some of the lighter maize ground with the carrier. Nice to hear we have picked up some outside work for Orchard Contractors again this year, should keep the power Harrow and maize drill busy for a week or two longer. Our sprayer is under huge pressure at the moment, with rape needing attention, pre em on spuds and maize and T2 around the corner we look to double shift it when this rain blows through. Also drafting Julian in to spray the maize will be a huge help.

We have one 939 and had it for a year now, it's expensive to have kicking around the yard and looking for something to fit the way we see our farming system developing, if we go down that route we have big things planned for the 775, it will be the busiest of the fleet.

Start of another week and kindly we have Lister Wilder's Demo Challenger MT775E for a week, perfect timing to see how she does on the bedtiller, flat lift and Topdown, looking to possibly replace the 939 for a smaller tracked machine to improve field operations and hire a smaller tractor for road operations when we are busy. All is going well and the maize drilling team are off to Camalot for a mega 400 acre block. Thanks Ol, nice to hear from you, how's things, hope all ok

Start of another week and kindly we have Lister Wilder's Demo Challenger MT775E for a week, perfect timing to see how she does on the bedtiller, flat lift and Topdown, looking to possibly replace the 939 for a smaller tracked machine to improve field operations and hire a smaller tractor for road operations when we are busy. All is going well and the maize drilling team are off to Camalot for a mega 400 acre block.

We have been all over the place today, T1 going on at home down at Selvinge, subsoiling for maize up at Camelot, potato planting Ashwell end of The Park, power harrowing down at Osbornes, Speaks and Houses and rolling at Yarlington and Clarkes, no maize drill going today as he is too close behind the cultivations, so Chris jumped on the Carrier to work down Camelot for a day

Hello Smithster, how's things up your way? We seem to have 4 seasons in one day at the moment, temps rising next week

Since the last update things have moved on another notch, all 70 acres of Shepody have been planted at Parsonage, the planting team have now moved down into the park starting at the far end by Billy Baker's workshop. Phil who is on the bedtiller is mixing his time between getting ahead of the destoner and subsoiling for maize, the 65kph 939 is handy for this with maize ground spread out over a 30 mile radius. We started to drill maize on Tuesday up at Brympton, Chris on the drill with Webby ahead on the power Harrow. Alyvdas our Lithuanian friend is back to help us out at this busy time, we have hired a tractor from Richard Parris for him, unfortunately it's a 516 but it's ideal for ferrying seed spuds, fertiliser around and rolling in maize. James is still on the sprayer which I have to say is performing very well this year, currently applying T1's. The work load ahead for it is frightening though, second dose of liquid fert needed which is late, pre em the maize, pre em the spuds, Sclerotinia spray on the rape before T2, nightmare, going to have to look at this next year as we are jeopardising timings and then the weather doesn't help either.

Look forward to seeing what you decide Brian, AVR seems to be very popular now, particularly over in the east

Lower field Parsonage