Gav836

UH Monosem drill and Vicon Ixter sprayer

Its just the light Mark, the mudguards aren't metal on the tractor so would smash instead of denting, not that I want to test that one

No problems with excess moisture here at the moment.....

Smile for the camera ;D

It minimises bruising risk from the haulm roller Ol, with the tops on they tend to get dragged in and bash the tubers on the way through

Its the moving up and changing over of the bulkers he just stands by and watches without attempting to help with, I have shown him how to use a brush.........that was before I threatened to insert it somewhere bristle end first and without vaseline if he didn't buck his ideas up a few weeks back ;D

Well apparently he has helped out somewhere before, what doing I'm not sure but at the moment he's heading mach 1 towards being used as a device to test the bruising abilities of my spud harvester

Unsurprisingly our student, he seems incapable of driving beside the potato harvester unaided, I spend 75% of my time watching him and altering the discharge elevator on his loads as he can't keep to a straight line and is weaving all over the place, one minute hard against the elevator and the next I can hardly reach him. The other chap is getting tired of him too now as he's just standing around not helping in the yard despite being shown numerous times. Words are being had with the boss tomorrow as things just can't carry on like this in the current conditions with the speed we're lifting at, volume of crop and quantity of top and stones at times, I've got enough to contend with with the harvester let alone loading someones trailer for them.

The variety is Saturna Niels

The box isn't that big really, it just looks it with the two screens and my workshop made light switch box wrapped around it. I find the box nice and clear and simple to operate. The computer screen is usefull as well as I can tweak cut out pressures and diagnose faults from the seat now with the electrical and hydraulic system........todays as been imminent failure of the cleaner table motors so we're down for the day tomorrow to replace the pair of them

Ros Grimme GT170, surprised by how heavy it is

Here are a few pictures from today, had an early day today as the haulier ran out of bulkers to send us unfortunately, as it was we sent about 120t of spuds away into store today for Walkers

Its a water tank Ol, there's a spray bar above the roller table at the rear of the machine to dampen the rollers therefore making the soil stick to them and giving an extra cushioning layer for the potatoes to land on. May well be needing it at the moment as well with how dry it is and the fact that its too windy to try and put any water on the field before harvesting

I've spent the last 10 days getting the potato harvester ready, some of the major repairs were carried out single handed this year which was not easy given the weight of some of the parts involved. By the time our usual dealer had sent someone out to assist (our usual engineer has been nursing an injury hence the in house rebuild this year) I'd already done the heaviest tasks.

Here's a couple of pictures of what I found when I removed the hydraulic motor that drives the XS cleaner unit on the harvester, no wonder I had a vibration problem with it towards the end of last year   Second and third pictures show the new gear with the old one as a comparison

And the Case with the topper and the harvester ready for the off once the Case engineers have been and sorted the hydraulics out in the morning, I can't use the front linkage with the harvester hydraulics plugged in for some reason so the need to have a look at the flow control on the tractor. I was expecting some teething problems when I got into th efield today so it came as no surprise, there is however a bumper crop of potatoes this year, never seen so many going up the machine. Will get some more pictures once we get going

We finished our wheat nearly 3 weeks ago now and the bulk of the spring barley around the same time. The boss cut the las 12m of headland around a 14acre field that had been too green when the rest was done Thursday evening so we're all done and dusted now. The student is currently in the process of moving our oilseed rape from the spud store into the grain store a mile away as we plan on storing it for a while this year as there's a world shortage apparently so we're hoping the price escalates

As much shock as sadness, the workshop manager at the branch of our local JD dealer we use the most has passed away after a short battle with cancer at the age of 45, hard to believe as two months ago he looked fit and well

Its increased my productivity thats for certain, today for example I went to work at 10am and by the time I finished at 4pm I'd ploughed 8ha, not bad with a 5f plough set at 16" furrows and dragging a press, including headlands as well. Even my boss has commented on how much quicker I'm getting things done as the Case has the power and weight to handle the plough and subsoiler better and uses up to 4ltrs/ha less on the plough than the JD in doing so which adds up over the course of the year.

Thanks for the comments guys

The tractors going well thanks Mark other than a small oil leak due to someone fitting two o-rings instead of one to a valve block bung there's been no problems

I see the between the two readouts there is a drop of 26% engine load and yet the rest of the stats remain almost the same. So from that I'd say the new girl must have a good amount of torque coming when the engine comes up to full engine load. Also, this is without boost too isn't it? So how are you finding her having had her at wo opposite ends of the spectrum, baling and ploughing then?

Lovely straight furrow too mate.

The Case has plenty of pulling torque Tris, its been playing with the 5 leg subsoiler that my old one struggled with at times.  There's no boost for draft work, that only comes in on transport and pto. I really do like it now I'm getting the hang of it, its so much quiter and more comfortable than the JD, a much nicer place to spend the day.

Genuine question Gav, why do you go the expensive way and plough for rape? Is that the best treatment for the field or haven't you got a suitable min-till/dd option at hand?

We find that ploughing gives us good germination results so don't want to mess with what works really Niels. We do have a min till option of sorts available but that would cost just as much as ploughing and drilling as it involves a TerraDisc pass, subsoiler pass and then the Vaderstad so uses just as much if not more fuel and more labour.

A new laptop, been getting a lot of error messages and page freezes lately on the existing one if it even starts up at all so thought the time was right for an upgrade

6910 and Vaderstad

Here's a few updates from the past weekend from when we were ploughing and drilling for OSR

We seem to always get the ones that need constant baby sitting, that lack common sense and forget everything that you tell them within the first 10 minutes after doing so........hence how we had over a ton of malting barley trailed down the road after he forgot to check the tailboard twist locks after going down the track despite being told to

I have a feeling of dread over potato harvest at the moment as he is unable to drive straight beside a combine so god knows what he will do beside my spud harvester, he's under the threat of having the biggest spanner in my toolbox wrapped around his skull if he damages it ;D

I did but two of the three red ones were old ones which I knew were ok, it was the new one bundled with them that done it

Wrapping around the neck of annoying students............

Opening my washing machine to find the white t-shirts that went in it are now pink thanks to the red one that had got mixed up with them

Given where you say those two Lexions are working and that they replaced New Hollands and also there being a Quadtrac in the field it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't belong to Velcourts at Royston

We finished combining at lunchtime today, other than 14 acres of green spring barley that needs a dose of liquid sunshine out of a can everything is now done. All the straw that we were baling for our own use is also wrapped up and the baler is now blown down and put away for the year.

The sight of one of our students this morning after doing the irrigation, not only did two pipes blow apart as he was walking past them but after he repaired them and went to turn the line back on the pipe blew out of the take off tap just as the pressure built up and soaked him from head to toe, he came in the yard dripping ;D ;D