Gav836

Today's job, using the 6930 on an Amazone Cenius Super cultivator we had on demo, very good tool but heavy! The front wheels of the tractor left the ground more than once!!

7230r and Simba 6m double press getting land ready for stubble turnips. Using Greenstar GPS on this tractor to make life easier. 

6930 and 40 foot articulated trailer straw carting. JCB 541-70 unloading. 

It's been a busy few weeks lately, the training is now taking a back seat to the farm work. I've been doing a variety of jobs over that time from cutting grass for hay (which the weather ruined!!!) to straw carting and cultivating. The main tractors I've been driving are one of two JD 6930 auto powers, a 7230r, Fendt 415 and one of two Ford 7840's which feature in this topic back in 2007!! All the other blues have gone off the farm due to issues with the last 3 they owned. 

On with the pictures, 6930 and mower knocking down second cut grass for hay/haylage which we caught right just before it rained!

59 minutes ago, chris.watson said:

Your right mate, chemicals have got so expensive and people havnt been using full rate to save money and thus resistance rears its ugly head. You won't get the big acre boys late drilling, you can't expect it with a 4 week drilling programme, but we never start intil October and that lets us spray off before a shallow pulling down. Wet winters on badly drained land havnt helped either Gav.

Agreed on the wet winters but certainly in some areas the bad drainage is being caused by using minimum tillage techniques on land that doesn't suit them, I've seen the resulting mess first hand unfortunately. I know Lemken have been doing some research into various establishment methods and techniques with interesting results where black grass is concerned, Spring cropping certainly seems to be a valuable weapon to use now. 

I'm sure that is what the answer is going to be to several of the issues we are suffering with in the arable industry at present Chris. We need to go back to looking at and utilising rotational and cultivational methods of pest/weed control instead of looking at chemicals first. Some of the problems we have, including black grass, could have perhaps been avoided if we'd used them in the first place instead of reaching for the sprayer first. 

10 hours ago, chris.watson said:

Rape has been hammered by flea beetle, the stems were full of them at combining around here. It's going to be a struggle to get it away this Autumn I think. Yields are below average, and some farms have topped 100's of acres as it just wasn't worth combining.barley yields are well down, with a thin looking sample and low weights. Ours did OK on weight but was down at least half a ton an acre on last year. All barley up this way has been poor, even the six row varietys have been thin. Ours just made retention and went for malt which took the sting out of the tail a bit costs wise. We have got a spearhead bat wing topper, a 5 meter. Great bit of kit. Just be careful when you turn on the headlands, you very occasionally get a stone get through the chains on the front of the bed and they hit the tractor. Our jd 6125r has had two new doors in the last three years.

It's not just your rape that's full of flea beetle, the rape where I'm working is too, the heap in the shed is clicking and moving around with the damn things!!

I've also spent a Saturday last month clearing haylage bales up for someone using a JCB 541-70 and Kane low loader. 

I also have a few pictures from recent courses. We use the customers machines for training so don't know what we're going to get until we arrive on site. It's not all new machinery, made a change to have a 20 year old Matbro TS280 last week. Recently I've also used a Claas Scorpion 7055 with a bucket that holds approx 3 tons of wheat when loaded! Also had a rare CAT crawler tucked away in the barn on one farm!

Been a while since I updated this, I trained as a forklift instructor at the start of March to allow me to make a near full time move into training instead of actually operating the machinery. 

Since the beginning of May I've spent 5 and sometimes 6 days a week out on farms and industrial units providing mostly forklift training but with the odd pesticide, tractor or ploughing course thrown in for good measure. I'm still doing a bit of farm work and have spent this weekend cutting grass destined for hay production and spreading it out. 

Ive got a few pictures from spreading the grass out today with a Fendt 415 and Lely Stabilo Tedder. 

8 hours ago, smithy said:

Don't forget to get your passport stamped other wise we don't let you out

I thought the A140 was your way of keeping people in.....

1 hour ago, MadMark said:

Do you think we should let him in more likely smithy? and what with Sean heading this way at the end of the month we need to go on lock down then

If they let you live there then anyone's welcome

Down in Suffolk today and for the next two days at Otley College running a telescopic forklift training course for them, back again next week for 3 days to do another one. Bit of travelling but nice place to work. 

7 minutes ago, Tractorman810 said:

Class Chris  ,and mike salads are ok  but dominos are way better

Your belly is sponsored by Dominos isn't it 

25 minutes ago, smithy said:

Good to see you have work coming in I will just have to keep reading the book on my MXU now that you are getting busy

I'll always have time to help a fellow Case driver in their hour of need

After a quiet couple of weeks work wise today has been a good day with bookings for 8 days of forklift training and the possibility of two more in the pipeline, May is now looking like a good month and June is starting to as well! 

I'm now just teaching training courses, got a few more coming in now that I'm a registered forklift instructor as well. I was supposed to be going destoning this spring but I turned them down in the end as they weren't keen on me still doing the courses as well, they have to come first as its my main income the rest of the year. Currently looking at other fill in jobs to do between courses, got a few ideas at the moment.

This is the MTX150, bit rough around the edges but still runs ok. Had to have a game of find the hydrants here so they can get at them for irrigation this year.

Bit of a job here as this hedge had been left so long that I struggled to get the head between the wire and the hedge bottom, defeats the object of setting the fence out from the hedge if its not trimmed regularly.

Thought I'd better just update this a little bit. I spent all of the remainder of January and then a lot of February hedge cutting with the T6080 until it needed the brakes overhauling prior to destoning season when I ended up with a McCormick Diamond edition MTX150 with somewhere around 20000hrs+ on the clock yes you did read it right!

These pictures were taken whilst cutting and reshaping a hedge that's not been done for a few years.

I think you need to come down this way for a few days, potato planting and root drilling is in full swing around here now. 

Were you dribbling much whilst looking at it?

After spending the last two weeks in Hertfordshire on a training course, I've passed all my practical and theory tests along with lesson planning assignments to become an AITT registered forklift instructor, just got to wait for my certificate and registration number to arrive now

Well he is younger when compared to some Sean......mainly the dinosaurs

I don't know what you mean Chris 

Besides I'm too tight to pay for that sort of thing