Oakley Farms

Here is an insight into the build up of Oakley Farms over 25 years. Oakley Farms started out in 1989 as one of 8 farms on the Oakley Estate. Life was small to start with being dairy. 1994 saw the first change over to a mixed farm, the retirement of two tennants brought about the change with the farm swallowing up the land, machinery at this point was mixed, with two combines, a small massey & a claas dominator. 1997 saw the livestock go and the last of the tenancies given up, a turn to completly arable & potatoes was started now farming around 2000 acres, kit was was a fleet of newhollands, 7840, 8340, x2 8360's TM165 and the flagship 8970, i can remember in those days that was a massive tractor, nothing else like it in somerset, combine included a 2066 hillmaster john deere, x2 14t gull trailers, x2 12t gull trailers, at that time we still had a few of the old 10t gulls kicking about, mill till was just coming in which saw x2 rabe ploughs sold, both semi mounted a 7 furrow & a 9 furrow which i believe was the biggest plough in somerset, 1999 saw the first claas lexion arrive, a 450, very troublesome machine, only lasted a year with a 480 arriving the following. Vaderstad drills had been running on the farm for sometime, a 4 metre rapid behind the 8970. 2004 saw another change, the 8970 was swapped in for a jd 8420, vaderstad 6 metre rapid now running, at this time i was around work experience age and can remember the 8340 had changed to the futuristic looking TS135A & a brand new TM155 which i personally loved, the next few years saw tractors swapped around TS135A's seemed to be a hit. 2005 saw the complete fleet revamped, a few redundancies made due to modernisation in agriculture, x2 jd 6820's replaced 2 TS-A's, one remained & the 8420 was changed to a 8530. Combine was now a Lexion 600 with 30ft header. This pretty much brings us to the point of where the layout started, how things have changed with 2013 being a massive year of change with a new grain store and the birth of Oakley Agri Business, a comprehensive & professional contract farming business that is taking off. A joint venture between Oakley Farms and the landowner where both parties keep their own individual business identity and the crops and stock still remain the property of the landowner but Oakley provide the management expertise, labour and machinery to establish and harvest the crop. The landowner receives income from the sale of the produce but pays all variable costs and some of the fixed costs, as well as a fee to Oakley Farms that is agreed with the landowner. Why go into a contract farming agreement with Oakley Farms? Variable rate fertiliser application – saving £20 per hectare Reduced storage costs Average drying costs and rebates Farm saved seed Chemical policy with returns GPS - steering reducing impact cost by minimising overlap Marketing advantage Overhead charges reduced Current farm buildings can be used for diversification bringing farmer additional income Helps with cash flow What do we offer? We offer a blend of contract farming services, dependent on the landowner requirements and within a specified time frame with the option to extend including: Administration NROSO ACCS Cross compliance SFP (SPS forms) Management accounts/reconciled Purchasing - Oakley Farms purchases variable and fixed costs using independent companies and buying groups by purchasing in bulk to achieve the best discounts with scale. This means we can reduce costs and pass on savings to our customers SOYL Gatekeeper Monthly meetings with accounts Quarterly agreement meetings – including gross margins, rotations, varieties. These meetings are minuted Cultivations Mole draining Drilling Fertilisers Agronomy Combining Grain storage – an example saving for one customer of £8 a tonne Hedgecutting Managed grain sales Yield mapping Yield maps provide variable seed/fertiliser rates 24hr Spreadsheet of yield per field Can provide total yield and net yield after drying Oakley Farms currently has a substantial storage capacity and is designed to manage over 1,000 tonnes a day during the harvest period and 60 tonnes an hour drying. We also have a weighbridge and sampling facilities. In 2013 Oakley Farms completed the fantastic new addition to our grain storage – the Frontier Store located on Farm. It is equipped with a Kentra dryer at the side, which can process 60 tonnes of wet grain per hour. We have incorporated a high-tech computer system which monitors, cools and aerates the grain automatically and consistently maintains the temperature <5ºC. This grain store process includes: The weighbridge A grain lorry pulls onto our new Griffith-Elder Weighbridge, where the automatic CS90 Spear is waiting to take five samples The passport is checked to make sure there is a valid accreditation sticker in the top right-hand corner and that the mycotoxin and GM Statements are clearly defined. The haulage details, signatures and dates all have to be legible so that there is a comprehensive audit trail The operator uses a ‘wizard’ to complete the weighbridge ticket Full details of Customer, Haulier, Contract No., Registration No., Store, Description of Goods, Delivery or Collection, Weigh Person and Driver are all clearly defined The wizard gives prompts to make sure the information being put on the ticket is right The weighbridge is integrated with our computer system so that the weight is immediately visible (top right hand corner) and can be added to the Weighbridge ticket, by pressing a button. This minimises the risk of human error and means weights cannot be tampered with. Sampling We then sample every delivery and collection using the CS90 Samplex System. This automatically takes five samples from every trailer Using a high power suction system, the grain is sent to the reception chamber in the Weighbridge Office The sample is then analysed by a Dickey-John GAC 2100 for moisture content, density (or bushel weight) and temperature. This machine is calibrated daily and ring tested by Frontier Laboratories The analysis is linked to the Ton-Tel Weighbridge Management System and can be added to the Weighbridge ticket by the press of a button. Again minimising human intervention or error As the grain is tipped into the pit, the grain store manager can either deposit dry grain into Store, or wet grain by passing it through our Kentra drying facility Whilst this is happening, the sample (with its unique number) is bagged, labelled and stored in batches of 10. Samples for Salmonella testing are also collected for later analysis. Unloading We have a 48 tonne bulk out bin to unload the store quickly and easily. Sample and paperwork storage Once all the paperwork is finalised, the samples, passports and copies of the signed weighbridge tickets are stored in a bespoke facility with deliveries on one side and collections on the other. They will remain available until 1st July of the following year. Drying For monitoring temperatures, The store has three zones each containing over 20 probes The probes monitor the temperatures every 15 minutes Information from the probes is linked to the Robydome computer which analyses the data, recognises when the ambient ˚C and RH% are at the right levels, then automatically aerates the grain by switching the fans on The ˚C and RH% information is used to manually switch on the aeration systems in the other zones. Manual temperature checks are carried out weekly between Harvest and Christmas, then every 10 days until the store is emptied. With our new grainstore, we also built a dedicated grainstore office and laboratory allowing us to provide a more complete solution for our clients. When the grain arrives at Oakley Farms, the load is weighed and a sample is taken for analysis from each load. It is then tested for moisture and bushel weight. Once analysed, the laboratory determine whether the grain needs to be dryed or can be stored directly. The Public Weighbridge is open from 7.30am to 4.00pm Monday to Friday. A long way from 1989!

I def think it can be done if you are running on a smaller width CTF system, i have chosen 12m to match the combine headers and also fits well with 36m tramlines, so to windrow 12 metres worth of spud rows into one is impossible unless you split it down to 6 metres and drive inbetween the 12m wheelings which in my opinion defeats the object by putting in a fresh set of wheelings, i think spuds will be a special case sanario where CTF goes out the window for a year and normal service is resumed the following year thanks to RTK Its just putting that field back right after digging/pre drilling that i want to get right or it could be a waste of time & money investing in CTF

Im not so sure after what i paid for it! Spuds are definatly on the agenda for the next few years, im sure i will come up with a solution to relieve compaction after harvesting, more than likely a good subsoiling and straight back in with the drill on CTF lines. I just have one thing left to work out and thats turning on headlands and how to remove/keep to a minimum, with some headlands accounting for 25% of a field it needs careful management

Iv just been through and revised my rotation so now i can drill a cover crop between wheat snd spuds, so no luck on giving up spuds just yet! There will have to be an auction for the kit! Ha ha

Cheers, i'll bear that in mind

No i think trying to control traffic potatoes is too much of a headache! No potatoes always follow rape here, thats just the way the rotation works, at the mo we wizz through with the carrier to get volunteers to chit then spray off leaving clean for the winter, then in the spring we shakerate and the topdown and then in with the riding bodies. I know radish is another brassica but we are only looking at a 5 month cover crop, combined with peas in the mix i dont think it should be a problem as by feb/march it will be topped or grazed ready for spuds, im looking for something to direct drill after the rape is off and over winter until feb

Just for you Paul, the Oakley fleet of tractors & trailers

Yes Niels we are looking at the 875E to pull a 12m drill & a 12m shallow cultivator at speed, we are also looking at a 7m topdown for ground that needs more work but primarly for spud ground preparation, the spud operation throws CTF out the window, something i need to work on and come up with a solution, perhaps a good subsoil after im not sure yet, or give up spuds altogether! Im really researching CTF at the mo and the operations iv seen all run 856C's or quadtracks, we are actually looking at 2 875E's and put one on a chaser bin at harvest

Some very interesting points being made on here now, we don't have an issue washing N in due to the climate at the time of spreading, plenty of showers, too many in fact, the biggest problem is stopping nutrients leaching, mainly over winter, something I'm becoming very keen on is soil structure, soil health is becoming a big thing now, preserving earthworms, increasing % organic matter, preventing erosion etc, steps here at Oakley are being made to improve all this, the first step was the move to tracks on the combine & big tractor, reducing compaction, then i introduced spring beans into the rotation as they fix Nitrogen into the soil and chopping the straw will improve Organic matter, the spreading of poultry litter & compost will also help this and improve soil structure after spuds. Another thing happening next year will be drilling cover crops, this kills several birds with one stone, although no income is made from these crops we will see the benefits in the future, fodder radish mix is to be drilled after the rape has come off possibly direct drilled depending on clean stubble, we won't worry about rape volunteers so saving money on a roundup spray early on, this mix will be over wintered before being sprayed off before going into spuds, my thoughts are it has several benefits, radish roots bust compaction, keeps soil structure together during wet months, prevents the leaching of nutrients, encourages worms, acts as a green manure, the only downsides are the time and cost of putting it in, which can be kept down by direct drilling. As for irrigation, we have and underground network of water pipes which run from the lake in the park to a hydrant in every field, it was put in some 20 years ago, we have 3 reels which run the tramlines in spud fields, we only water spuds here to improve yield and help skin finish, the drawbacks are 2 chaps on it night and day moving reels to get round the 300 acres, pivot systems are not common here but a 1/32 system would be very interesting, and id live to see it, perhaps a pioneer like yourself Ol could invest in one?? As to your question with keeping water in the beds, we used to use an aqueel roller on behind the planter which was a lightweight foam roller and puts divots in the beds to hold moisture, we also use a damdyker to make groves in the wheelings to slow water down on sloping ground, the only trouble is when it comes to harvest its like driving up a stepladder!

I will put a fleet pic up on here sometime

I think it comes down to personal preference, one of the farms this layout is based on tried a deere and said they felt every bump, i would agree with you on the vario gearbox, that is a major plus. Next year we will be swapping to the MT875E for CTF which is unbeatable without going to articulated

Two 6830's with front linkage, a 6930 & a 6210R, we hire in another 69 during the summer for harvest too, and not forgetting the MB Unimog

Yes we do have the same trouble here, but our philosophy is to start earlier to finish earlier, but yes towards the end of last year some fields did look a bomb site and trying to get wheat in behind was tough, however if this happens again we now have the Horsch Express drill to cope with the conditions, but we hope it doesnt come to that and we can crack it in with the Vaderstad. Potatoes are grown 1 in 7 years here on a rotation around the home farm.

Yes Paul, all the fleet is John Deeres except for the big tractor which is a Challenger, we tried JD's version of tracked tractor but found the MT765D far superior in comfort, ride, & pulling power

A lot easier, the biggest problem i have is the rotation of spuds, we are hoping to drill cover crops to over winter preventing soil erosion and run off this year

We grow Potatoes, Oilseed Rape, Winter Wheat & have introduced Spring beans into the rotation this year

Thanks Dan, it was kept quite so a surprise, we just felt we had to do something to mark the occaision without messing up the fleet

Like the fields you got there, nices fences too, coming on well

A Fendt would be nice but try to keep everything matching, so with a fleet of JD's it had to be a black 6210r

I heard thats where all the money is up Hinton, espically with all those Brushwood sheds joined together

Finally for this week Phil's new tractor has arrived, a JD 6210r in black along with a black Richard Larrington 16t root king trailer, decided to have two bits of kit painted up in special black along with silver signwriting to commemorate 25 years of services to the Ag industry, 2014 Oakley's silver anniversary.

Combine number 2 has arrived! The Lexion 770tt ordered last year has now made it to Oakley. Since Oakley Farms works very closely with Frontier Agriculture, using their agronomy & marketing services, and we have the South West area grain store for the company we struck a deal, we have become the company's demonstration farm for the drying & handling of grain & oilseeds, having visitors come from around the country & world to view the facilities, with a close partnership they in time will have a South West office based here and we have had this new combine wrapped in the Frontier colour scheme for marketing purposes and to promote Oakley's contract farming service as all grain is dealt with by Frontier

Ok we're back with some updates, after a trip to Lamma with Jack Pollard of Barrow Brook Farm we had a look at some kit to go halves on for our joint farming venture at North Cadbury, first we looked at a 3 metre Horsch Express drill with idea that im running an 8 metre Vaderstad Rapid and Jack runs a 4 metre Horsch Pronto both will be impossible to drill with in wet conditions so the 3 metre mounted Express was bought to become a back up drill when the going gets tough which is becoming more often with the English weather! We were impressed with the disc arrangement allowing soil to flow through and the drill to stay on top. Second bit of kit we looked at found us on the Bailey stand, a 20t lowloader with triple axel was contemplated for moving kit about such as the telehandler with a lot of land now spaced out over a wide area this will come in handy, both shared between both farms, as Barrow Brook is still being constructed delivery was taken at Oakley

Who is Wardman Farms? Never heard of them

Thanks Pete, nice comments like that are appreciated