Gav836

Sorry to read of your news David, my sincere condolences to you and your family at this difficult time. It sounds like you have lots of good positive memories of your Grandad to look back on to help you through the next few weeks

Looks like I'll be needing another display cabinet with the 770 coming then Should be a good model if its to the same standard as the Dominator, would be nice if it featured steering this time though

Its the same up this way, we've done one 24mm pass on all of the spring barley and also on the wheat and winter barley on our lighter land. The carrots that were drilled Easter weekend haven't tried to germinate so have now hat 15mm of water and we're now pumping 18mm on the first 3 fields of spuds. We draw out of an Artesian well so are ok for water for a while yet as the water table is very high about here. You can tell the difference around here between the spud growers crops who have irrigation and those that don't, I was speaking to one of our neighbours Friday who's son worked on another neighbouring farm and he told me the he'd been looking after 7 irrigators the previous day single handed and thats over a fairly wide area. Can see us running out of water around here during July at this rate if it doesn't turn wet soon \

Irrigation.....AGAIN! Still not had any rain to speak of despite heavy showers being forecast yesterday, the two we did have gave us a whole mm of water, thats the first rain in over 8 weeks here!

I get the Frontline that I use for Buster off this site Mandy, don't know if its any interest to you http://www.petmeds.co.uk/p-195-frontline-spot-on-for-dogs.aspx?_kk=frontline%20plus%20for%20dogs&_kt=5fa69fc2-9062-43d5-8995-cf9be6824b48&gclid=COLv6oWO3qgCFchO4Qodj3rjAQ

I do actually like that colour variation, our neighbour has a newer 700 series Fendt in that livery, makes a nice change from the usual red and green. Thats one of the few colour variations of Fendt models I may have to aquire

Irrigating again.......the same as the last 14 days, still not had any rain here. Its that bad now we're irrigating a field I need to plough for maize, we kept leaving it in the hope nature would save us from using our precious water abstraction allowance but it wasn't to be

I've always had Dickies or Bucklers safety boots but the last pair I bought were Hoggs instead and they are by far the most comfortable pair that I've ever had, there's more cushioning in the sole of them for walking round on concrete floors all day. My last pair of Dickies were giving me terribly sore feet after a day in the workshop hence the move away from them. I certainly wouldn't recommend rigger boots for that sort of work, you'll find lace up boots will give you far more ankle support than riggers or slip on dealer type boots.

I'm surprised you can whizz anything round the garden at your age and taking into account your ample proportions ;D

I usually try to pull each headland up as the other pair have finished turning on them, particularly while we are applying pesticide granules as well in case they have left any laying on them accidently. I don't usually mind going back and doing headlands on fields as its a change of scene and a break from doing the same field, particularly in the case of the last one. All the fields are within a 2 mile radius of the farm anyway so its not a great travelling distance either. We do leave a 3m track around the field on at least 3 sides for both spraying and irrigation reasons, they never used to but it was one of the things I pused for the first year I took the job on as there's so much waste when you plant right up to the field work on headlands by the time you've jammed about with spraying and irrigating all season, I harvested more clods than spuds from that bed the first year I was there and boss agreed it was damaging kit as well

Spring barley followed by fodder rape for over wintering the cows Ol, the field has a problem with Potato Cyst Nematode so thats why the carrots have gone on there

The headlands are left until the middle of the field is all planted before being subsoiled and ridged up

I've been ploughing for carrots for the past two days as well, the field has been subsoiled by a contractor at 18 inches deep and I'm ploughing it at 12-14 inches deep. There's a JD 8430 on the bed former, 6920s, 6930 and a Fendt on destoners along with a MF 8480 Dyna VT on a Jones bed shaper and MF 6480 on the carrot drill

This is what the front of the desstoner should look like and thanks to our efforts Tuesday does so This is the last field that we have been working on, its a horrible field with no easy way to plant it so its been split into three and planted in three different directions. The field goes as far as the hedge line you can just about make out in the distance near the whiter soil in the centre of the picture

Tonights football result.......Norwich winning 5-1 against Ipswich ;D ;D

Everyone has to start at the bottom and work their way up Jordan, I was on £96 per week back in 1997 when I first went on the farm and have now worked my way up to a respectable amount of money a month now, still not a fortune compared to other industries but you'll never get that working on the land. It may be worth talking to your employer about gaining more experience but on the other hand they could be testing your staying power by giving you the jobs they are to begin with until you prove yourself to them

I can see where you're coming from there as we have an apprentice at work now on £3.57 an hour, not a lot of money especially when he has to travel every day as well but as he says at least he's learning and has work whch helps with his college assignments unlike several of his group there. Its also the only way we can afford to keep him on this early in the year to give him the experience and training he wants after he done well on his trial with us two weeks ago with a view of taking him on just for harvest and irrigation back then. He has been told we will look at putting him on the appropriate rate for an 18 year old as per the old AWB order nearer harvest though.

Well unfortunately our destoner is back to its old ways this year and had a severe breakdown yesterday when the front web carrier frame split off and ripped the web to shreds that we only replaced 40 acres ago. After 7 hours with a welder, 14lb sledge hammer and grinder we had it straightened out and refitted and just for good measure we belted a length of steel bad up inside it and welded it just for good measure. It managed to do 6 hours work today before suffering electrical failure leaving it stuck in the middle of the field unable to move.......3 hours of checking things out and it turned out to be a loose wire.........wonder what delights tomorrow will bring : Yesterdays mishap........

This is one that was a local farm sale a few years back, does have a top saver fitted to it though

It is Sean, it probably doesn't need them but tractors do often ride better with a little weight out front at times.

I also attempted to plough the ex carrot land with 20 tons an acre of straw disced in on it yesterday, we abandoned in the end as the straw is too dry and fluffy to bury well at the moment so needs a rain on it. Just to prove I don't always plough straight......especially when the ground is like concrete so the plough rides out.... and one video, again also on Youtube for the same reason:

We had a demonstration of a Standen Uniweb Destoner yesterday which we were highly impressed with, both in performance and the small number of moving parts to replace yearly on it making for low running costs, so much so in fact my boss jokingly said I'll order one here's a video of it at work as well, it was going quicker in these beds than our Grimme goes in beds that I've put the tiller through Just incase photobucket is a wotsit again with video's, here's the Youtube link also:

Was that before or after Saturday night Tris ;D Nice start so far Sean, glad to see you could make out all those pages of diagrams and measurements I gave you that I took of my mates real one