tractorboyjules1977

With the majority of the ploughing now under our belts and the spring beans all safely in the ground our attention for this week is to get the workshop up together ready for the spring to properly kick in . 1st job this morning was to go down to Cox's and pick our 2 new valtras a t174 & t194 both will be initially with us on a 6 month lease hire contract and from there onwards the opportunity to extend the lease or change depending on circumstances or if they get recalled before , initially we will be aiming for around 1000 hours before change . 1st jobs for the newbies 700 acres of grass to be harrowed and then on with the flat rollers ease em in gently and get the operators fully engaged with there new surroundings ! At the dairy yard the 1st cubicle house has been finished and the 2 robotic milkers are in ,so far so good just a matter of getting the girls used to the new technology and new ideas of split paddock grazing ,ie were implementing a 8 hour grazing system over 3 paddocks during a 24 hour period so no 1cow will be in the same paddock for a maximum time period , principals are good on paper and stats anyway !

Thought I heard the rumbling of the Oakley fleet out and about !!!

finally somthing going in the ground ,today we made a start on drilling 100 acres of spring beans ,so far so good and ground pitching off quite well , the fertiliser spreader also went on today managing to put on some p& k on the wheats , with hopefully a little tickle of nitrogen later in the month .Yesterday the sprayer was all hitched on ready to get on with sorting out some winter stubbles early next week ,Good to see the machines out of the yard at last and not a sole back at base !!

Cheers Paul ,I'll have a look on eBay

Good spot mark ,not a bad price cheaper than the the last 2 I bought

Cheers John ,if I could get hold of another couple I would go on and do them ,just sourcing them is the prob !!

Thanks John ,I just finished them myself ,quite impressed with how they come out ,they used to be uh triathlon spreaders

A good week of weather under our belt meant we could crack on with groundwork , so with 200 acres done of ploughing done means we're starting to catch up , the spreader gangs just returned back to the yard after a week's spreading for Oakley , time for a desiel refill and a clean off and back out on Monday morning up at Churchill's cleaning out there lagoon ,In the yard were now back up to full spreader capacity after the 2 Richard Western rear discharges had a full refurbishment and are now ready to go back to work , Also with the hedge trimming finished we decided to take her off and pack her in the shed releasing up another much needed tractor ! , hopefully some new arrivals in the pipeline next week !

Thank you Paul ,we gotta amazone cayron 6furrow coming on demo when highwoods pull there finger out ,and also a Gregoire besson rwy8 6furrow and a lemkin , just waiting on dealers to drop them out , with other 500 acres booked in were scratching around a bit at the minute !

We are short on the plough department Paul until the new one arrives ,but were keep on plodding away !

Yeah very true smithy ,time is money after all !! The masons attic shed is spot on after a bit of tweaking aswell

At last some drier weather ,this meant for a brief Time we can get the plough hitched up and get on with turning over some stubble ground , at least on the higher parts of the farm .Today saw the young stock move up to the new dairy site ,we felt the step was necessary to improve for the future of the farm , a much needed upgrade meaning all our cows/heifers are now on 1dedicated site with up to date buildings ,the main cubicle shed is well under way so all is going according to plan , The final decision on the milking side of things looks like we will be going down the road of the Fullwood Merlin robotic milker ,mainly because dealer benefits being reasonable local to the area & a good review from a neighbouring farm which employs 3 of these machines , so all systems go and something to look forward to

Nice update Dave

Thanks much appreciated , hopefully get some pics of construction site at least and then frame work with a bit of luck

Not much happening at the minute at Orchard HQ , Both tankers managing to get some water out from the AD Plant and over at the dairy , deciding to sacrifice a field of grass just so we can continue to transport water , until the weather and ground conditions improve . Getting ready for the spring with the first loads of fertaliser coming in 24 tonne of nitrogen & a part load of nitrogen & urea , with more due in later next week . With nothing really moving on the grounds so to speak we haven't had much movement on tractor demos as didn't really see the point just sticking a tractor on a trailer or tanker , hopefully look forward to some movement later in the month . with the weather being so changeable work starting to back up , 550 acres of ploughing booked in and 9 customers waiting for spreaders ,looking like a busy time at some point ! up at the dairy building work due to start this week on the new cubicle sheds so will be all hands to the pump to get the job underway !

First outing for the lorry this weekend loaded up with straw going down to turners at Dorchester , 2 loads booked in so far , straw price still holding around £60 - £65 a tonne at the minute for wheat straw at the minute . Just arriving in the yard our latest addition is our new slurrykat tanker , we had to go smaller than the fliegl as some farms we just couldn't get into the yards so have gone down the road and purchased a slurrykat , matching it up with the rest of the slurry equipment . Hopefully we will have the same reliability as the RW we had last year .

Makes the models come alive as well as the scenes I reckon

Yeah ,look spot on ,yeah didn't think it was line up when I went to put it back together ,my opinion looks better with a driver rather than an empty cab

Thanks Wayne ,much appreciated,nearly up to where I want to be machinery wise

With a few dry days under our belt things been progressing nicely with the constant calls for umbilical to be used and the with the spreaders being sent out for the last 3 days some sort of normality at last .While the skeleton crew going out of the yard a couple of us decided to have a bit of spring tidy up , 1st job for the wknd was to move both the foragers around the workshop giving us enough space for when the combine arrives . 2nd job was to go and collect the main umbilical kit from the AD Plant ready for the team to go out tomorrow morning ,so the tanker will be running non stop at the AD Plant until one team returns later in the week . 3rd and final job for the wknd hitch up both bale trailers ready for delivering haylage / straw down to Mosterton stud tomorrow and weds . Hopefully next week we get on with some ground prep .

Nice update Dave . liking the new sprayer shed

2016 underway now , didn't start too well on the tractor front with the 7930 going down with a fuel problem over the wknd , so in due coarse Smarts were called up quite rapidly and with being on call duely arrived to sort the problem . With the 79 dwn the 724 was sent up to the AD Plant to take on digestate duties for a while . Earlier in the week the slew arrived back in the yard , straight into the workshop for a look over before he goes off down to Oakley for a couple weeks on hire . Not much happening on the tractor front at the minute but a few reps been in this week trying to push some demos in which I expect we will be seeing in the next few weeks .

Thought I'd been under water down there ! Liking the update !! They chaps on a t break ?

no worries smithy much appreciated ,happy new year to you ! prob see you up at leamington next month ?

Thanks james , to be honest it was lying around doing nothing , so with a bit of tinkering it will do the job nicely , on the plus side there is a commercial business not too far away importing and converting American lorries for uk useage