Oakley Farms

A few small jobs that have happened, the topdown and carrier have been washed, greased and put away for winter A new IBC of AdBlue arrived and was put in the workshop A few second hand elevators have been purchased ready for the new grading line that goes in next year, these will need modifications in the workshop Drilling has nearly finished all bar 50 acres, the drill and remaining seed have been put in the dry in the grain store what with the yard being so cluttered with trailers and boxes! Finally Cadbury Park Farm have finished hauling empty boxes into the yard, we are hoping this should be enough to finish if it ever stops raining!

Although the wet weather has put a stop to finishing the potato harvest it has allowed us to get on and finish alot of those small jobs around the yard, firstly we installed a new water tank for sprayer filling, water comes in from rainwater harvesting off shed roofs and treated biobed water (which i will come to in a bit) and fills the tank on-top the chemical store where it is then pumped through the wall and into the sprayer bay through pipes

We have now finished digging our own spuds and are on the last 80 acres for nieghbouring Cadury Park Farm, they haul there own potatoes to keep costs down, we plant, dig, grade, store and market them as a service They had a small Valtra on hauling but it was being pushed about by the trailers so we decided to leave it in the yard and use it as a tipping tractor so the others can just come in dump a loaded trailer, hitch up an empty and return to the field quicker, its quite a long haul so this should keep the harvester going, its slow progress at the mo as heavier soil and wetter conditions slowing both harvester and grader up, now stopped because of rain!

We grow Charlotte, Jelly, Sylvana , Estima and Harmony, trying 10 acres of Melody next year The gassing is done literally by a chap coming in with a pick up with a tank on the back where the chemical is mixed, he shuts the door down with his pipe under it and blows in the fog, depending on store size its a quick job, where i used to work a store of 800t took 45mins

Thanks James, some careful photography!

We had a few wet days last week so Mark took the opportunity to bring the harvester back to the yard for a spot of maintenance Maurice and Dan started hauling a new variety of potatoes called Jelly to a neighbouring farmers cold-store to be gassed (this stops them sprouting) Oakley Farms is part of 4 growers in the South West that make up 4000t of Jelly contract for Greenvale, all 4 farms will haul their Jelly into this storage farm for gassing so not to contaminate other stores that could be used for seed in the spring, we borrowed C P Farms bailey flatbed again to speed up the process

So whats been happening down on Oakley Farms lately, well the pack house has been up and running with 4/5 fridge lorry loads of washed and packed salad spuds going out every night, transport is at night so to keep disruption to other farm activities to a minimum, we have 1 load a night to Branston Potatoes just up the road, 1 to Greenvale Tern Hill site, 1 to Greenvale floods-ferry site and the last to Branston's Scottish site, we have capacity to get up to 6 loads a night, currently we have deliveries to the four corners of the UK, Cornwall was a no go area with two major growers there already. Only the Salad potatoes are washed and packed on site which is a short lived affair and doesn't make a great deal of money but does bring in some early revenue! Also Mason Bros have been in taking low grade potatoes for Asda value pack, it is important to have a market for your High and low grade produce, which sometimes means on the spot sales. However most of the potatoes grown here are sold on contract to Branston who pack for Tesco which we will haul up to the factory ourselves in the winter being only 4 miles away, and the rest are packed by Greenvale for Sainsbury's, they will be hauled by Bonnings Transport to Shropshire. So the bulk of the main crop will be put into cold storage until December when we try and catch a slice of the xmas market.

Thanks Niels, i try to keep the information and stories as realistic as possible, i think working on a farm really helps as you can transfer real life happenings into 1/32. As for the potato storage, im still working on that, as i have only recently built this diorama its one of the jobs later on down my list but yes i do plan to put in fridge units and vents along with boxes, perhaps a winter job when I'm a but quieter!

Drilling now going well this afternoon, variety is KWS Santiago

Got to have a challenge Joe!

A local dairy farmer has dropped off a West silage trailer to be filled with stockfeed potatoes The lads have got abit of a winter workshop project ahead of them, Oakley farms have bought a fire damaged chaser bin from Cambridge; with taking on more land next year and running two combines it seemed a viable option. So at the moment the chassis is in the workshop and on wet days the lads are going through the running gear, outside is the main bin part, watch this space!

Starting the winter wheat drilling campaign today, Steve is calibrating the drill along with help from the smarts fitter dave who is also here servicing the 8530 in the workshop Joe has been loading bags of seed on the flatbed with the jcb and strimech bag handler ready to take the field

Thanks Paul, its a MT765D, i was impressed with the model compared to the C range, more detail like topcon receiver and better linkage

Spud digging is now in full swing and progressing well, the yard was a bit chaotic one day with 3 loads going out and of coarse they all turned up at once! Empty boxes being taken into the grading shed The beloved 8530 has now been sold, we put it through the workshop giving it a clean and 5000hr service

2nd September 1st day of lifting spuds, slow day setting up the machine, trial dig for Branston potatoes so 2 lorry loads required for tomorrow, here is Mark and Maurice leaving the yard for Hinton Park this morning Also going on this week, now Steve has finished combining he can sit back on the 8530 and drill the remaining 600 acres of OSR, now we are into september and its beginning to become late for drilling rape we have swapped varieties, we were on DK Camelot and have switched to DK ExPower which provides early vigorous Autumn growth, great for later drilling!

Harvest is now in the bag at Oakley, had a good run of weather and a good team Combine returning home

Thanks for all the comments guys, really appreciated, iv tried to keep the farm nice and tidy so i built an entrance to match, Oakley Farms prides itself on a clean tidy image so this is portrayed to its customers when signing contract farming agreements, which is currently happening, 3500 acres owned on a "home farm" with an extra 1000acres in contract farming agreements starting this autumn

Farm entrance now pretty much finished

thanks Ol, yes your right there but for oilseed rape establishment in one pass the tiger is fine, we get away with it on this farm because of the light soils, but id imagine in heavy clay it wouldnt be suitable to drill in one pass

I have now started work on the farm entrance, on the left is hedges and trees creating a boundary between yard and field, this area will be used to park trailers, potato boxes have arrived ready for lifting spuds in the first week of Sept, these have been stacked on the right in the box park which has hedges around it, in the back ground you can see work has started on digging footings for an extension to one of the coldstores, this will be a loading bay for potato lorries

We had a farmer from Devon come up to have a look at our drill, Paul Palmer from Huish Farm arrived in his pick up and is looking to buy a 6 meter version but wanted to see one before buying

Updates for 30th Aug The demo challenger has now gone back so the 8530 is back on drilling rape, the demo went down very well, that well in fact the farm has bought it as an ex demo, being cleaned up and serviced before being delivered end of sept

Night time juice up! Steve drilled some this morning before the dew lifted and combining then took over, now at 10pm its too damp to continue cutting so is going on into the night drilling, silly season is here! Very impressed with the Challenger, pulls like a dream, new drill is doing a dam good job too

Inside the grain store at the mo, this years rape on the right and the first of the wheat on the left Shame its not falling out the door but yields this year haven't been great as planted late due to wet weather and a cold spring put it behind about a month

We had a nice surprise today with the delivery of the new Grimme CW150 destoner the farm ordered last year, this should improve output when planting as the old CS1500 machine was becoming abit tired and will now probably be sold Maurice unloading her Put to bed in the machinery shed until spring