Oakley Farms

Philip has now joined us taking the place of Tim and main sprayer operator. He spent his first with me riding around showing him the estate, all the ground, meeting the farmers we farm for and a tour around the buildings, after that we went soil mapping and marking boundaries onto the gps system for all the contract farming ground as well as our own, for this we used the game keepers weapon, the gator! Phil's next job is to spend some time in the workshop with Steve going through and servicing the piece of kit he will probably will use first, the Amazone fert spreader, as come February he will out on that Rape ground

Happy New Year everyone! Thought id start 2014 with what acreages we have this year, how the rotations have worked out its a big year for Oilseed Rape with some 2,880 acres in the ground, with only 900 acres of winter wheat planted due to the introduction of spring beans which we shall drill 770 acres in March most of that will be in the new block of land at Yarlington where we have subsoiled due to the previous tenant only running 3 metre kit, the land was taken on late in last autumn so i thought rather than pressuring the drill to get winter wheat into rubbish seedbeds resulting in shocking yields we would do the job properly and spend time digging ditches, cutting hedges, widening gateways and giving the ground a good lift up ready to press on in the spring. Spuds are around 320 acres this year which about normal.

Best wishes to everyone for 2014, Happy New Year!

While i have 5 mins i thought id let you all know some plans for 2014 as before i know it it will be xmas and new year; so it is now confirmed that Les the tennant farmer of Knott Oak Dairy is retiring from 1st Jan, a replacement has been found who is self sufficient therefore Tim who drives our Newholland won't be needed to carry out feeding, bedding up, slurry tanking etc anymore, that contract will end. Therefore Tim will now be moved to the other dairy farm where he will become full time tractor driver, Simon Madge who runs this farm has also bought the Newholland from us so that will keep Tim happy, in return Tim will help out with hauling in busy periods so we will still see him on here from time to time, this has left us a shortage for hedgetrimming, fertilising, and rolling operations so we have taken on a new chap called Philip Wright, he has moved down from Scotland and will be a tractor driver taking on all of Tims duties as well as full time sprayer operator, helping assistant manager Joe with running the drier, grading lines, cold stores and also is pretty handy in the workshop, he is an all round cracking bloke. His new tractor is due in the new year. We now have a new girl to help run both the Grain Lab and Potato Quality Control office, sorting logistics, passports, samples etc etc, her name is Katie or QC Kate as the lads call her! 2014 is a special year or Oakley Farms as it celebrates 25 years in the ag industry, this will be celebrated with a few 'special' bits of kit and i will go through some of the history as to how the farm was built up. Also happening next year is Open Farm Sunday, Frontier Ag official open evening of the grain store & LEAF demo day. Work is starting on the shed extension after xmas, this involves a lean-too off of cold stores 4 & 5 and will become an undercover loading bay for potatoes with 100 ton ambient temperature storage in one half and a small cold store in the other half (number 6). The loading bay will have access to stores 3,4,&6 without a forklift leaving the building, this was planned when building the sheds in the start but sufficient funds were unavailable at the time to complete with the grain store going up and investment in new drying facility zapped alot of cash! I will also be putting in proper refrigeration units into the cold stores and exterior vents to finish of the sheds. On a final note to do with sheds a new grading line is being purchased which will see some changes to the grading shed, a soil bay will be built outside will extraction elevator coming through the shed wall and windows will be put in for a viewing gallery for farm visits by Greenvale, Branston, Sainsburys and Tesco executives, this will become more frequent when becoming a show farm for Sainsburys Potato Quality and Frontier Ag grain drying and storage facility. On a last note the crops are looking good, OSR is doing well, lots of autumn growth, drilled into good seedbeds helped, the Horsch drill worked well but next year i think we will block every other coulter to improve establishment further, Wheat is also good, slightly poor on very light soils and a bit behind on last years spud ground but will pick up in the spring no doubt, next years spud varieties are Charlotte (the last year of salads unless they make money as the packing plant is becoming unjustifiable) Melody and Harmony under contract for Branston, and Jelly and Sylvana for Greenvale. Bit of an essay tonight but from Alex and everyone at Oakley Farms i wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope for your continued support in 2014!

Another option i have considered is chopping all the straw but its such a valuable asset, chopping the rape and bean haul certainly helps. If or when we move over to CTF chopping straw will happen unless Cabury Park Farm can come up with an idea to pick up bales without leaving 12m traffic lines.

We currently work with one of the dairy farmers on a rotation that allows us to have virgin spud land every 5 years and we reseed grass leys afterwards. There was a rumour that one of the farmers was giving up in the new year, if that is the case the land would either be swallowed up for arable or we would find another tennant, both farms have small fields and steep ground so finding another tennant would be the best option. However i am conscious about tiring the ground out with intensive rotations so next year see's a change, we are including spring beans into the rotation to fix nitrogen into the soil, and the chap who we sell all the straw to has secured a contract to supply a power station in return bringing back compost and chicken dung, this will improve organic matter and help to restructure the soil especially after spuds. I think a good idea would be to drill some winter cover crops to also help soil, but that will come down to time!

The moggy has now also had its specially built Horstine tank fitted on his back ready for bowser duties in the spring, we also had relfective strips put on, silver on the cab and amber on the tank

We have also converted an old yard brush into a bucket brush for cleaning the grain store, yards and roads!

The truck and trailer course was more popular with only 4 on the tracked vehicle test. The quiet run up to Christmas has now turned busy with the Christmas rush on potatoes starting with both Greenvale and Branston loading out of our cold stores with is good as this is creating space as the first load of seed potatoes for next year tuned up this week and also bring in some much needed money for the new shed extension starting in the new year. Also this week Frontier Agriculture has had a boat docked at Avonmouth Docks so its been a frantic rush to load OSR out of the store to fill the boat before xmas, so this has meant loading lorries through the night, i estimate just over half the rape has gone now.

Last week Oakley Farms held some training workshops for local farmers. First was a Catagory H (tracked vehicle) using our Challenger, and later in the week was Catagory B + E (car and trailer)

We run a 20 mile radius of the home farm, so the tractors can be running up-to a 2 hour round trip, the beauty of having a chaser bin is it offers us 24 tons of flexibility, if a trailer isnt back to the field yet it buys us half an hour, also i have long distance hauls covered by the chaser bin unloading straight into artic bulkers, a final benefit of having a chaser is reducing ground compaction, something im hot on, with a good driver on the bin sticking to tramlines etc and combines on tracks we hope to improve yields, not having trailers running all over the place espically on contract farming schemes dealing with other peoples land, we are keen to improve soil quaility not depleat it, improve yields resulting in a better return for the landowner and Oakley Farms. This is something id very much like to expand in the future with the introduction of CTF and hoping to give Oakley Farms a good name as a clean, efficient, profitable farming company. Alot of these steps are already in place such as the new grain store and automated dryer, allowing us to save money and sell crops at a premuim, both passed on down the line to the land owner, another step is buting the best kit on the market and keeping it maintained and regularly replaced as timings are crucial in the job and when you have to go you got to go, espically when other peoples profits are at stake.

Im hoping 2 18 tonners, 1 16 tonner, 5 14 tonners and a chaser bin will keep up with two combines, definatly ok in Rape but Wheat will be a different story!

Thanks Joe, it is a lovely model, Wiking have done a superb job.

Yes Oakley Farms is now the proud owner of a Lexion 780tt, not something we planned on buying but the Claas rep was desperate for our 770tt and this 780 was a canceled order sat in their yard so he made too good a deal to turn down, comes with Business Cab, Sight and Light extras, Cruise Pilot and the new Cemos Automatic option, we are really hoping all this boosts output even more. However we are still waiting for the new 770tt we ordered back in July but we are told this could be here by next week

Somebody has just spotted this driving into Oakley's entrance

Nope not the chaser bin im afraid, next year is a special year for Oakley Farms, have to wait and see. Next year i will have another 770/750tt for sale

Thanks chaps, i really enjoy posting updates on here, its great they are appreciated, im looking forward to having more time soon to get on here and look at other display's. The Larrington is a Three Oaks model, iv got a bit of a thing about trailers! I do have another trailer hidden away in the back of one of my sheds but im not saying anymore until spring next year!

Tim's job on the run up to Xmas is to cut all the road hedges and parkland, here he is making a start on the farm entrance I have bought a few new toys lately, first is a Unimog, bit of a unknown buy but i do have some uses for it, firstly im going to fit a tank on the back with a mixing bowl so that it can mix up chemical at the farm and run the roads to keep the sprayer going, this will improve efficiency massively with 5000 acres to cover over several farms and with timings critical it justifies itself nicely,in time i will have a trailed bowser to go on the back, also iv fitted a hitch on the back and with an 80kph box it will handle a trailer nicely keeping that chaser bin going in the summer! Finally iv bought a trailer, yes another one! This time its an 18t Larrington Majestic. With the legal maximum gross weight possibly moving next year from 24t to 32/35t it was time to take advantage of it, now with two 18t trailers on farm it will certainly help keep the grain moving as well as carting more profit.

Some updates, the lads are back off holiday now, Steve has put the Shakerator on and is changing points in the workshop, this is ready to subsoil 500 acres of new land taken on as a joint contract farming partnership with a neighbour, the new block of land is called Yarlington Mark has got our neighbours low-loader and has put our mini digger on to dig all the ditches and widen all the gateways to 12 metres to allow the combines to go field to field without taking the header off, he has also put the link box on with chainsaw and chains in it to cut all the low branches off the trees up there, Joe is going to follow up there with the JCB and grab with a trailer on to burn up rubbish and hedge scrub

My cousins farm up near Warwick and he loves axial flow combines, he has two! I think it comes down to personal preference, if you like a machine, its reliable, does a good job and is backed up well by main dealer support your going to stay with that manufacturer or buy another. As for the 770tt it has already been sold im afraid, somebody was very quick off the mark!

Im afraid its the wrong colour for me, love Claas machines, the farms i have taken inspiration from to build this display all have Claas Lexions, from a 760tt right up to a 780tt

I take it you mean Axial Flow Ol?

I like your thinking Joe

Its all quiet on the western front here at Oakley, spuds are now finished im glad to say! The last 80 acres were tough going and the cheap second harvester we bought really helped. Last week we washed the kit off ready to be serviced sometime later in the winter, the trailers have retired for now returning to the trailer park The harvesters have been left outside for the time being with all the lads on a well deserved weeks holiday, its been down to me to load lorries this week being short staffed! I have also had the Claas rep in the office trying to twist my arm about a new Lexion, having already bought another 770 to cope with next years extra acreage i wasn't planning on buying two this year, usually swap combines in every 5 years however a local farmer is very interested in the first 770 i bought, now 2 years old with 7000 acres under its belt, have to see what special deals he can come up with!

The builders have now finished the Biobed, this is used for sprayer washings, the sprayer returns the first 2 wash outs to the field where the remaining chemical will do some good, but the 3rd wash out will get dropped into the grid at the front of the Biobed where it gets pumped through layers of organic matter and compost which breaks down the chemicals and catches them allowing clean water to be pumped back to the sprayer filling tank, we have also made a grid in the filling bay so that any spillages that occur during filling are also pumped through the Biobed, this is a safe way of dealing with chemical spillages and also environmentally friendly, at this moment in time the farm is being verified to become a LEAF (linking environment and farming) demonstration farm showing good farming practises whilst caring for the environment