Oakley Farms

5/6 days until harvest and the grainstore is nearing completion, we have guys working around the clock to make sure we are ready

The last in our own fleet is this John Deere 6155R shared by myself and Simon. A versatile go to tractor, used for carting, hedge trimming, rolling and avadex applications

As we head towards harvest, I thought I’d introduce you to the current fleet. Most of you have met the prime mover, our Claas Challenger 85E which handles all the cultivations and drilling. But next up is the John Deere 6195R driven by Colin, used for secondary cultivations, fertiliser spreading and carting work, spec’ed with rear wheel weights to pull the 6 meter Catros.

So now we have a workshop finished and although not kitted out with work benches and tools yet, it’s great to be able to finally have a space to get machines undercover to work on. Just as well because Paul from Claas Western along with his apprentice are here this week to set up the new combine and go through things with us. John Webb is also in for the next couple weeks cutting verges and opening up gateways for visibility at harvest. Potentially looking at spraying of some rape towards the end of this week, if not next. A good chance to put the new sprayer to the test and set up GPS and auto shut off etc. the countdown to combining has begun!

Workshop and Spray shed now complete

Did the same to mine, makes a massive difference doesn’t it. Far far better

Here they are in this picture from way back, just to show we used to run Deeres back then too!

Not resprayed no, some original Oakley trailers from back in the day, were sold and then bought back again. I think I’d rather get a scythe out than a Newholland combine! The John Deere’s were done by Gary Thompson, he did a fantastic job of them and as/when harvest kicks off there will be some more pics of them

Any Eagle-eyed followers recognise these?

A combination of Brexit and Covid? Struggling to get parts to build/finish combines, and import parts as back up for over here. Luckily this one was ordered last September

Nice little job today fetching two new water tanks in the Amarok pickup. These will hold water from rainwater harvesting and used to fill the sprayer. The tanks have to be installed before we clad the chemical store

Lovely combine

Then something big came to town on a Friday afternoon…

First job for Friday was collecting the replacements for the two Fendt 724’s we had. Simon has bought 2 John Deeres from Parris Tractors in Taunton, both 6 months old and very low houred. A 6195R for Colin and a 6155R for Simon and myself to use.

The sun sets on another day, lots of construction work going on this week at the farm, updates coming soon

A small update, John Webb who is set to help us out at harvest with his own tractor has just taken delivery of his new one. Traded in the beloved McCormick MC135 for this Claas Arion 650, should be able to handle our trailers a bit more. John will be helping out hauling, hedge cutting and rolling. Our 2 Fendts have now gone so we are tractor-less for a week now until the replacements arrive. I think the combine is arriving early next week too

If anyone is interested in some second hand Fendt 724’s as seen in this layout, do let me know. 2 for sale

Times are a changing at Oakley, Simon has realised that having a Fendt 724 in the shed as a spare tractor for grain hauling, rolling and hedge trimming is a bit of a luxury and quite over kill, so in a bid to streamline the business both 724’s are going, sold to Richard Parris, and in replacement he had two 6 month old tractors, low houred, tidy and smaller as we don’t need the power or the technology, they will be arriving in a couple of weeks. Starting to panic now if the grainstore will be ready for harvest, and looking at other storage options.

Just after 6pm last night we had the first part of the combine arrive. The driver is staying over the weekend so a job for Monday

Thursday last week the new sprayer arrive with us, Friday we had SoilEssentials down to install and setup the Trimble system on her. They are coming back down together with the guy from Amazone SW when we are ready to try it out in the field. That will probably be when we get the spray shed plumbed in

Back after the Easter break and Colin has been off to get some more concrete panels for the workshop

It’s a quiet time now on the farm with all the crops planted and growing away, with only spraying going on in terms of field work and that’s being handled by contractors at the moment. Our sprayer has landed in the country and is being pdi’ed. Once delivered and the spray shed is finished we can carry out this ourselves. Meanwhile we have been helping to re clad the drill shed and put up the steels and perlins of the workshop/spray shed. It’s coming on well and looking great before the Easter break

Applying digestate Dave?

Finished spring drilling on Sunday which is great, everything has also been rolled and now we can get Crawford in to apply the pre emergence sprays. Whilst we have been busy out in the fields the builders have been back and finished roofing and cladding the machinery shed, now we can park some kit under cover rather than out in the elements. Just waiting on some flashing and down pipes to finish it. The next project is to tidy up the drill shed and put up the steels for the workshop and spray store which Colin and I will be helping with.

Weathering of the exhaust and tracks completed on the old rig now, also added a new set of twin mirrors with convex glass to see down the side of the tracks and the Trimble screen inside the cab.