Gav836

Been a while since I posted anything in here........my Case developed a hydraulic fault last Monday where it wouldn't lift the plough off the ground or operate any spools with a load on them so its i the dealers at the minute meaning I've now got a Puma 230 CVX on loan while its being repaired. In the past few days I've finished ploughig other than a wet patch of around 1 acre in one field, started subsoiling for potatoes and bee pulling down land for this years beet crop. Managed to get a few pictures too..... We drilled our last bit of spring barley on Thursday, this was behind spuds and still a bit wet in places meaning our hedge cutting contractor who comes to help with spring work got his 6920s bogged, had to drag it 100m or more before he could move under his own power again. Puma 230 CVX on the plough After I'd done those headlands I put the subsoiler on as we decided to abandon beet drilling over the weekend due to the cold weather and wintery showers.....

Not likely as my tractor isn't quite two years old yet, they know whats wrong with it but not whats causing it, its one of those problems. We don't plough for spuds if we can help it, it creates two many clods and is a waste of time when you can get as much soil by subsoiling. We only ploughed 30 acres last year after the wet weather to get some air into the soil and let it dry out.

Subsoiling land destined for potatoes with the loan tractor as mine is in hospital with hydraulic issues, had a Puma 230 CVX for the past few days so making the most of the extra horsepower.

If you're in the YFC and not judging birds then there's something wrong with you

Finished putting the Kongskilde Germinator back together after yesterdays problems, tough going ripped two of the front rollers off after the bearings failed, also sheared all the bolts off holding one complete roller assemble to the chassis. Once that was done finished harrowing the field before drilling what I could of it with the seed we had left. Finished up the day by ploughing some more beet land.

My buys from the Malvern show Replicagri Fiat 880 Ros Fiat 1580 Ros Fiat 180/90 Ros New Holland G170 Ros New Holland 8770A

Not at all as that was an obvious wet hole that could be seen from a mile away, the one I dropped into was hidden under a dry surface where there's never been a wet patch before. The farm is known for a high water table so its not unusual to get water in the furrow bottom, it is highly unusual to drop in how I did though.

Never been wet their before, its at the top of a slope so we're thinking that its a new natural spring appeared after the past few months extremely wet weather. Needed two chains and the JD 6910 to get me out, had to use two chains to get it far enough away from me to be on dry ground. Had no problems getting through on the next time down the field. Trouble was I had to pick the furrow press up where I got stuck so I think it was the extra pull needed to get that moving that assisted in getting me well bogged.

Finally back ploughing now over the last few days, unfortunately I had a "mishap" this morning for the first time since 2001......... Stopped at 9am for tea break, 10 minutes later the furrow looked like this........... 30 seconds later this happened.......

Ploughing all day today as its dried out enough again, now resting for the rest of the night, will probably go in again tomorrow to try and gound some ground covered while its good going.

The weather.......got a good covering of that 'orrible white stuff outside again!!!!

If I were to hazard a guess I'd say dirty water irrigation, not uncommon practice for irrigators to be used for putting dirty water from livestock farms onto stubble/grass fields to get rid of it rather than using tankers to do the job.

We still have another 70 acres of beet in the ground yet so it will go on the pad until they come out. Our beet goes to Cantley or Wissington, both factories are closer than Bury to us.

It gets made into "pulp nuts" for livestock feed Ol then sold on to farms

The haulier finally came and collected the beet we had lifted two weeks ago today, there was a part load left over so I collected them off the Maus with a trailer and got a few pictures at the same time. This is our farm cat Gypsy, the bulgarians adopted her last autumn and she's become resident ever since, she's earnt her keep by removing the mice from the barns and workshop...........trouble is she's very affectionate and will climb on my back and lay down when I'm bending over doing something which makes work interesting at times

The boss is afraid of the gas axe where I work, he can use it but the fact I put a nozzle in it that can cut through 4 inches of steel scares him

More like Plasma cutter or gas axe.......the latter is much more fun

Been for a second interview for a job at a local farm this morning, had a look around the farm as well this time. Now sitting in front of a log fire between tidying things up in the house.

That film does work Alex, I've used it in my house a couple of times although the first year on the kitchen windows the draught was so bad that it blew it off during the first night. Try using the self adhesive "P" seal as well as that works really well at stopping draughts getting through.

I turned down the offer of a second work based interview there as I found out some info from someone who knows the farm and knows the previous chap who worked there, that and a couple of other things put me off it.

To be quite honest Bob its his own stupid fault if it is, the sprayer is sitting in an open ended cattle building that gives no insulating effect what so ever, it was just taken off the tractor and dumped there. Its happened every year since we've had the machine so far and it really bugs me but then I have very little to do with the sprayer so just leave him to it.

This is what happens when you have a -10C frost and a certain person has yet again not put antifreeze in his sprayer, there's still 50ltrs in the oil store that I ordered to do the job last year, was never done then either with the same results. Just hope nothing else is damaged esecially as its just back from being overhauled at the dealers

If it wasn't for the beet coming off that field John we wouldn't have been able to do it either, good job I did finish it last night as it now has 6 inches of snow laying on top of it!!! Will be a few days before we can get back into the fields now.

After having some beet out last Friday I managed to get one of the two fields ploughed by lunch time today, after a discussion with my boss it was decided that I'd better drop the plough off and drill it with my Puma as well as it had ploughed out livery in places. The joys of only having one tractor that is master of the drill in less than favourable conditions and a drill that is a pile of crap for late drilling!!! Got the field finished just as it came on to snow hard again, at least I could see my mark then as I had struggled with it all afternoon thanks to the conditions

About 8m Ol but varies as to how wet the muck is. Full loads Tris due to the carting distances and not wanting to chew the headlands up more than absolutely necessary by running to the gate. We have had bigger loads on them before though but have to be carefull when going down the road as we have a village half full of incomers who have nothing better to do than find something to complain about. I did have one complaint via the boss from a man about the verge outside his gate having a spreader wheel put down the edge of it, nothing more was said when I pointed out that its not his verge anyway as the first 1m of verge belongs to the council regardless of whether or not he manicures it and when you meet an artic on a single trac road you have to try and squeeze past eachother where you can.........not as if it was deliberate and the ran on section is less that 6 inches wide