Gav836

Had a good day, 23 acres ploughed between 7.30 am and 5pm, wet tough going land..........all went well, would have gone later except for an incident involving my plough and the corner of the concrete beet pad, thought I'd missed it but caught the last inch of corner and done the shearbolt in, will take some sorting out in morning as bolt is rusted in

We are waiting to try a Lemken, have heard that there is a problem getting demonstrators at the minute though. Always had Lemkens at my last job without much trouble so definately want to try one here

These are the ones we have here Paul: Rabe - Johnson Bros Vogel and Noot - Nicholsons Dowdeswell - Agri-Hire Kverneland - Randell NFM Overum - Ernest Doe Power Kuhn - Ernest Doe Power Lemken - Ernest Doe Gregoire Besson - Ben Burgess

We have a Kverneland at the minute Paul, 20-25 years old with a twisted beam/headstock and at the minute a knackered valve block on it so we wouldn't rule one out again given its service unless the dealer can't give us one on demo to compare against the others. I think if your Dad brought his set up here the TM would curl its toes up quickly :D We have a list of criteria we're looking at on each one, some the manager told me to account for others I'm looking at from an operating point of view: Fuel Consumption Purchase Price Resale Value Parts Prices/Availability Ease of setting up/Adjusting Ease of wearing metal changes Amount of moving parts/wearing parts on plough frame Build quality That little list is keeping me busy at the minute as the boss wants a nice table done with it all in

The phrase "There's drivers and then there's screwdrivers" springs to mind here :D

No gears to worry about on the 6920 John as its an Autopower. was set at 9.5kph for the Dowdeswell and Rabe but wouldn't pull the Overum much above 8kph, all on the same field as well. The Rabe is looking favourite now as my Boss was impressed with its build quality and features as well. Best bit is it looks like we are going for a hydraulic vari-width model now as well

I don't have a bow saw Mark so its my trusty Husky and axe

Thats why I'm not cutting it up, I've got oil fired heating too so can keep warm. if I see my thermometer raise above -2.5 I might consider chopping up more telegraph poles, burns very well

Really should be doing the same but its damned cold out there, still in minus figures here

By using the area meter on the 6920s (one of the few things that does work properly on it) and measuring how much diesel we put in to fill the tank up each time after a plough has been, tank being full to brim. crude method but best we can do with the kit we have

We have a few more ploughs to try yet but so far the Rabe is proving to be the favourite with us, it's blown the other two out of the picture on fuel consumption per hectare worked which is an important factor for us, it leaves a good level broken finish and has good clearence for coping with trash unlike the Dowdeswell. If you're interested this is what the consumption figures are in litres/Ha Overum 20 Dowdeswell 17 Rabe 14 Thats a big saving when ploughing 300ha per year

We still have a Kverneland to come when the dealer finds a demonstrator along with any other brands we can find. We've gone for a 140 model as we want scope to add a 6th furrow if we took more land on or increased tractor size. The Rabe and the Dowdeswell are on a par for a broken finish Phill, the quality of finish those Dowdeswell bodies are as close to a slatted one that I've ever seen from solid ones. No the Dowdeswell is still as heavy as they always have been, the headstock is rated for 300hp across the range does come with several features as standard that are optional extras on others. The Rabe was a 6 furrow when I went to collect it but I could only lift it 6 inches off the ground, took 3 hours to remove the back furrow and change it all about

Will be spring barley Simon, more than we'd planned for due to only half the wheat being drilled in the autumn because of the wet weather

We probably plough between 500 and 600 acres a season depending on ground conditions. Prices are varying between about £14k and £18k so not a cheap item. I have mentioned new boots a couple of times but not got them yet I do like the Rabe but will see haw it fares on a full days work with fuel consumption which is being measured on all ploughs along with spare parts prices, the Rabe is also the most expensive plough we are trying I think

The Rabe, got a day on this one tomorrow Will be getting several more on Demo yet as its quite a big long term investment on a farm our size so want to make sure we have the right one And a couple of pics of my ever present co-pilot :D

Not updated this for a while as we haven't been doing much due to the weather but due to the valve chest braking up on my Kverneland plough we've been getting some new ones on demo this week, had an Overum yesterday which I don't have any pics of but had a Dowdeswell MA140 today which was a very nice bit of kit and I now have a Rabe vari width on the tractor, nice but v v heavy. Dowdeswell first including a video Oh and for the Mog fans what it arrived on

Well the wall batten is 100% level and the base boards are level to the floor..........the floor boards aren't level though as per usual for an old cottage

Trying to snow here as well

No way Blake, this wires too rigid to make good hoses, use model railway wire for them

Cheers guys It's neither Adam, its very thin plastic coated garden tying wire

Cheers Simon. It's because in true modern machine fashion, my beet trailer is too tall to fit under the Stoll's hopper

Maybe on the next section Marcus, I don't mant any hills on this bit Anyway, just a little update, I've now decided that what was the cereal field is now a pasture so have put the herd of Herefords out on it. The field has post and wire fence on the road and dividing side of it and a single wire mock electric fence on the other two. Only one more fence to make now between the yard and beet field until I expand the layout onto the other side of the room

I've now finished the fence off around the potato field and have now started to do the other fields as well. Pleased with how its turning out so far

Because I don't have one of my beet harvesters in my collection as yet Buster was too scared to come in there, the power tools laying on the floor scare him Cheers for the comments guys, intend on adding some trees other than the curtains into the layout at some point as well Tris

Cheers Tris, never had the space to do it before As for todays progress, i've got two more fields sorted on it, one will be a beet field and the other a cereal field. I've also started to put the fencing wire up