Oakley Farms

Harvest Log Day 3 Just a quick update, Got going again back at the winter barley late afternoon on Monday down at Wigborough Manor. Almost 300 acres completed down there up until midnight last night after a full day. Rain here again today leaving 180 acres at Wigborough and 90 back at home in the Meads to finish off; itching to get on with the OSR now!

I think there is something missing here.......

Always a pleasure chaps!

Harvest Log Day 2 Another good day cutting winter barley, Yeabrige for Joe Broughton, 147 acres down today now leaving just over 500. Rain forecast here overnight and much of tomorrow so all machines back to the yard, maintenance to do on everything!

Finally when putting up these stores we encountered a problem, having to store a massive tonnage on a small footprint because of planning restrictions (or lack of space in the model room) so we decided to go up, we store up to 12metres high in some places, to achieve this without crops suffering we use automated temperature monitoring systems and probes that monitor grain intake which automatically speeds or slows up the drier depending on grain moisture content that turns up in the yard. This will achieve exactly 15% on outtake preventing weight loss on overdrying grain and infestation on under dried, saving about £40,000 a year, couple that with the tracker solar panels that run the electric for the whole plant, more sun in summer>more electric usage during summer making the drying facility carbon neutral. Soon to add the transport and logistics side to this business to supply the whole package from farm, drier, storage, to end user all done by us. Eventually I'd like to build a grain conditioning and colour sorter into this plant so to be able to clean grain and get a better sample to create a better premium for customers too, and an idea to add seed dressing in that mix too.

If we look at the route of the barley currently, this is coming out the drier and up 2 elevators before heading into Store 2B, Store 2A&B have x3 overhead conveyors to maximise use of space and store 1 has the one central. The barley is using the far conveyor currently. This we all be outgoing on contract in August before we need to use the store for beans.

When it comes out the drier it can go to 1 of 3 stores. Store 1 which was the first put up, now used mainly for wheat and is the biggest, or Store 2A which is the smallest and used for OSR, and Store 2B used for Barley and Spring Beans. All crops are handled by elevators and conveyors out of the drier to the stores for ease, the picture below shows Store 1, this is opposite the drier plant and grain enters via and overhead gantry, in this gantry lorries can be loaded from overhead hatch straight out the drier if needed or on into the store.

We have 2 tip pits for different reason, flexibility being the main. Firstly during harvest when cutting our own crops we will use tip pit one which is the left bay. This is a direct route into the drier. Tip pit 2 will be used during the day to intake any local farmers crops that we dry and store for them, e.g Orchard Farms, they can bring crops down directly off the combine, weigh and sample, tip into pit 2 which then fills x2 150t wet bins therefore daily intake of local farms is 300t. A problem occurs if what we ourselves are cutting is wet and the drier can't keep up we need to use the wet bins, so far this hasn't happened but we have plenty of space to tip on floor and dry afterwards. So this keeps combines running and intake open allowing the drier to go 24hrs a day as the bin storage is emptyed and dried during the night.

The trailers then turn 90 degrees to the right past the drier and reverse into 1 of 2 30t tip pits which are grates in the floor with augers in the bottom.

Just for you Ben and anyone else interested it's time to go through the dryer setup and grain handling at Oakley. First up is every load goes over the Weighbridge and is sampled by the red CS90 spear which goes straight to the lab for analysis.

I'll take some more for you mate

It did yes, went very well, perfect sized capacity for us, running it on a 939 which seems to be great, power and speed yet agile in field with steering axles. I will get some action shots as the season progresses. Any help you need with yours, sizes etc send me a pm mate

There is a lot to keep up now at this time of year, now that Phil is off the forager he will sit on cultivations, rape drilling, spraying and trailers when needed. So today he went up to North Petherton to start opening up the wholecrop ground with the 7m top down, also has the rapid lift on to remove the 6m wheelings where the forager and trailers have been at the same time, this will be the beauty of 6m CTF for AD because we know exactly where the wheelings are in order to do something about it and then revert to 12m for secondary cultivations and drilling etc. We shall use this first pass to get a chit, spray off and wiz over with the carrier before drilling hybrid rye in September.

Glad you like Zac, nice to another local lad on board, putting Somerset on the map!

Harvest Log Day 1 Combines started rolling today in winter barley at Frogmary. Early to tell on quality until we get lab results and yield but looking at a very average 7.2t/ha. 164 acres down today after a 2 hour start and then stopped because of drizzle for an hour before carrying on this afternoon. Straw sold to Orchard Contractors who will be baling for us again this season for the 3rd or 4th year now and kindly running our bale chaser to stay in CTF. This year we have Chris and mysel on the combines, Mark on the chaser, Alyvdas, Webby, Pete, Dan and harvest hand Colin on trailers with the old man coming in when needed, James is running the dryer and yard, and a team of uni students in the grain lab. Crack on down to Yeabridge for Joe Broughton tomorrow for 146 acres.

Cheers Wayne, should keep two lexions going!

Good to see harvest underway up the road, hope to catch you up tomorrow

Cheers mate, yes built it myself although at times wish I hadn't started! Pleased with how it turned out. Which have you chosen to build?

18/7/17 Last day of wholecrop today and then sheet down the pit and a quick turnaround to try and start some winter barley if there is time. The new chaser bin arrived this morning. After a few years of trying a couple out we think we have finally found one that will suit our requirements, the Richard Western GR30. So we originally tried a GR24 which wasn't big enough, last year had the Horsch on tracks which was better on capacity and the tracks were great in the field but suffered on the road, which isn't great for us as there is a lot of traveling during harvest, so we have gone for 30ton capacity to fill lorries in one go, gives us the flexibility in field with the combines, gone for a compromise with triple axel and low ground pressure tyres which will be better on road and a surprisingly light footprint in field with steering front and rear. Fingers crossed she'll be put to work today! In other news the Unimog has returned from TWR bodybuilders with is 3rd colour after a poor paint job. Now has a fresh new look to match the new colours. Finally today we say goodbye to our 63 plate Challenger MT865C, keeping the 64 plate MT875E for another year or two. She's been a good workhorse but now needs new tracks and has clocked 6000 hours so didn't want to run it through the autumn. Tune in later on to see if combines roll

All will be unveiled tomorrow when she arrives

Cheers mate, X1 of 3 25,000t stores, here's an overhead view

16/7/17 Whole crop harvest is now nearing complete, probably about 2 and a bit days left, now up at Camelot East block. Forager is running well, the maus has been a little temperamental but what a difference it makes loading into lorries, makes long hauls no issue which for us is perfect. Really should be on cutting winter barley now, straw is about 90% fit but the ear is 120%! Preparations are pretty much there now with grain stores cleaned, drier and elevators ready to go as are the combines, trailers have been washed, sanitised and serviced. We just have a new chaser bin to arrive on Tuesday. The only thing preventing a start is the fact all staff are on the wholecrop job, learning from this next year hybrid rye will be grown instead for a better DM% and earlier maturing allowing an early start so not to bump together with combinable harvest. May start on Tuesday across the road from the farm with one combine and trailer while the rest of the guys sheet down and clear up at Camelot

Liking the case combines Dave, very nice. Macdon headers?

Harvest 2017 Starts! Today harvest commences at Oakley Farms with Wholecrop for AD. A good start over at North Petherton for James Broughton, the first year he has grown energy crops for us. The Maus is coming into its own since this is 28 miles from farm. 2 new ejector trailers and 2 regular silage trailers for in field and 4 walking floors for road. Back over the Weighbridge at HQ and clamped outside with the Pisten Bully. We have about 8 days of chopping all being well and possibly straight into combining winter barley, it's pretty much ready now but don't quite have the staff or chaser bin to be able to go. Dessication of OSR is underway now so it's all kicking off, still awaiting pre harvest inspection but not complaining as behind with preparations!

Cheers mate, yea gives them a whole new look, hoping to spray up a few older bits of kit the same so everything matches and gives a new lease of life!