tractorboyjules1977

Well were nearly there the end of harvest 2015 , tomorrow should see the last day for the combine barring any breakdowns , we've got 65 acres left out of a total of 1050 ! The last 25 acres have been a pig with a couple niggly stoppages for broken sections due to soft ground conditions and variable weed , but all in all we've had a pretty good harvest ,apart from the weather now and then !!! The balers should be finished off by Friday night , just a jaunt up to Dobles at hurcott for Alex and then back in the yard for a service and washdown before off baleing 3rd cut silage next week ! Just a chance tonight to get in the potato shed and have a tidy up before potato digging starts in a week or so .

Yeah your right chaps , you can apply for special deregations , especially if you push the safety aspects to the edge of reason , and of coarse like alex and pat have said special circumstances !!! No worries smithy see where your coming from !

Thank you paul , no worries

Take your point paul , This would be the closest I will ever get to running an operation of this size , and im not a millionaire so this is the next best thing , I ve tried to base it on the farm where I work and 2 local contractors , and the 3 Ad plants we have in the local arera , hence the input from some of the lads and owners that are on these farms/contractors operations ,I hope this clears this up for you paul .

Thanks niels , sometimes you gotta dig deeper and further afield machinery wise , just as a couple local contractors have around our area for the not so common machine for this side of the water so to speak , but they have manage to achieve this ! As I dnt want want to contradict what was posted by someone a little while ago that this is indeed MODEL WORLD and not REAL WORLD , we all try to do the best we can and enjoy it as much as we can also depending on how deep our pockets are !!!!!

With the weekend approaching its been flat out with the combine and now only around 340 acres of wheat left , thank god its been a testing time to say the least !!The balers munching everything up behind the combine leaving nothing down on the floor overnights , a lot of straw now going into storage with the hope of getting a better price in the winter ! The square balers off to Oakley tomorrow at broadway to bale up 195 acres for alex , then the round balers will take over on our straw while there busy down there , With the harvest finally going along well the other lads have been out spreading dung on stubbles before they go back to grass seed , meanwhile myself and the fitter been setting up the potato equipment ready for the next job .All systems go again . Hope to have partner in crime back from his sick bed very soon , get well soon alex

Yeah be ideal on the silage , especially like you say dave ideal on flinty grounds , reduce the percentage hit the blades on the forager !!! Harvest dwn here is hit and miss at the minute with the dews lying on the ground till 11-12 o clockish and then again coming in around 8ish , but it is what it is just gotta keep plodding on , luckily we haven't got too much straw left down so at least that's 1 bonus !!! Keep on rocking Dave !

Get well soon m8 , speed recovery . Were keep your combines moving !!!

Great update dave , What do u think of the roc swather ? were out using an old wuffler to turn over a few bits of straw we got on the ground

Got nothing to do with being upset , people do there best on a hobby they enjoy , Most people try to post appreciate views on fellow dioramas , Theres enough c*** flying around this world without shooting down people who really enjoy reading others topics , Some topics I find have little niggles , but I keep my opinions to myself and just dnt comment ,everybodys opinion is different !!!!!

Well paul , why the negativity , we thinks you need to do a litte research from some dealers and importers , u can get anything if you put the effort in and the team to source type of machine , plus this machine is the same spec as the nh , massey version !!!!

What a difference a day makes , yesterday managed to get the combine moving until 1 o clock in the morning , just as the rain started to fall , at least we got another few more acres off , but now the combine and grain trailers back in the arable yard parked up , testing times at the minute !!! On a brighter note I went down to compass to pick up our ex demo baler , opted for the fendt version this time , thought it would match up with the fleet better ,ha ha! !!!! Just a skeleton crew in today a bit of trimming down the drives and in the gateways and going to go on a spread a bit more mustard seed on the stubbles for the winter .

A new week same old story , not a lot to report on the harvest front !! A wet week ahead a decision was made by myself and the dairyman to put all the milking herd onto winter rations this week and also to keep both herds indoors for the time being especially now with the pasture paddocks starting to resemble a quadmire in places !!!! Not a lot else happening today just no1 umbilical team going out getting ready to set up for tomorrow morning all being well !

Liking the updates fella , keep us posted !!!!!

With the balers on the way back to the yard after baleing up all of Oakleys straw that was down on Tuesday , we can safely say the balers will be parked up for the foreseeable future , especially with a wet forecast for the 1st part of the week , This has given us a chance to get the potato digger ready , also we have been out with the plough to turn over 80 acres of stubble , the decision to plough as these 80 or so acres have a slight blackgrass problem due to the amount of mintill these fields have endured ! been out stubble cultivating on the dryer stubbles all ready to start drilling rape probably by the middle of the week . On the hire front we haven't made a decision yet but a few parties have put some good deals together , so mite have more news early next week !

Finally after the deluge of rain on Friday and now nearly a 3rd day without any rain , the wheat tested at 3 o clock this afternoon and a moisture of 16% the combine rolled out the shed and into the 1st field of wheat ! probably not for long as rain forecast again for weds/thurs but at least weve made a start , the balers will be in tonight when a good chunk is off so then weve got nothing left on the ground to get wet !! tomorrow should see the balers go off to ashill for Alex , just waiting for the go ahead ! Also a phone call from Alex this morning should see 2 tractors and trailers booked in to help Alex with spud hauling its gonna be a tight week on the tractor front ,so I expect a few phone calls later will see a couple hire tractors make there way into the yard .with the sticky weather earlier we decided to put the hedge trimmer on and tidy up around a few of the stubble fields ! Lets hope we can get harvest well under way this week !!!!!

Finally a day and a halfs break in the weather and we can get on with the jobs we had planned for the beginning of the week ! , we have a severe shortage of tractors at the minute with everything out ! We eventually got back upto Montgomerys to carry on chopping 400 acres of grass for Alex , a late night is the order of the day over there as heavy rain forecast for tomorrow morning , so we should get that polished off tonight , With 3 balers out down at Oakleys 196 acres and another 96 acres at bay hill , another late night for the boys on the balers and the trailers , aswell as Alexs chaser picking up as fast as we can bang the bales out ! all in all so far so good we wait and see what tomorrow brings !!!!

oops !!! at least the suns still shining for a couple days !!! keep that combine rolling buddy

Off we go again cutting grass , seems never ending ! with the wheat not quite there yet ,we had a call from Alex to get up to Montgomerys to cut off 400 acres of may drilled grass seed , with both mowers off and the rake not far behind , and 8 trailers in total with the help of Stew @ manor contracting we should be able to wrap the job up quite quickly , especially looking at the grass looks like a trim around so quantity shouldn't be a problem ! Back in the yard getting the balers ready when we get the green light from alex to start wheat straw , we still not managed to get a 3rd baler in at the moment so looks like another call to Stew for a helping hand with his baler !!!! Roll on next week when hopefully we can get the combine rolling .

Thanks pat , Yeah not bad at all at the minute the drivers seem to like it ! only time will tell ,

Nearing the start of a new week and with all the barley now cut and all the fields cleared , time to turn around and prepare some stubble for new crops , Today we did start drilling in 100 acres of stubble turnips and kale mixture , we managed 50 acres by home time tonight so only another 50 left , straight in behind we have already rolled in whats been drilled , hopefully catch the weather right and the seed will get a good start , In the yard everyone gearing up for an assault on the wheat , prob early next week !

Christ your want a police escort for all that lot in tow mate ! ha ha! top job !!!!!!!

Things moving on swiftly in the yard and around the farm today even though the weather is right knightmare , today saw the arrival of yet another machine , something I didn't think id see myself investing in ? the last of the 6210rs have gone now and were john deere free so a JCB fastrac has arrived , we shot down to smarts early this morning to pick it up , he has been through our workshop today just to add some bits and pieces like cb & aerials , and a light bar ,and of coarse a beacon bar , 1st duty of the day was to hitch up to the bale trailer and set about getting some more loads of barley bales , proof will be in the pudding to see if this turns out to be a good investment or not ? Meanwhile ive been over to hinton park to start trailering loads of barley back to our bins , these will be filled and then the rest will either go down to Oakley or off to riverside . The balers returned home over the weekend from there stint at baleing for Alex ,with a few modifications in tow ,ie the addition of the extended arm on the rear to run with the chaser for oakleys ctf ! thanks to Alexs fabricators for a top job ! Our workshop saw the stubble cultivator have a run through before he was sent out for a trial run of lifting barley stubble , lets hope the weather improves or the workloads gonna get big !!!

Thanks niels , Most of the recently baled barley straw will go out to customers who will use it straight away , mainly for feeding straw , and we will keep the rest for feeding our own stock , as to the question of baleing behind the combine , I see where your coming from and ideally we would normally leave for 24hrs if the the straw looks a bit green in places and a chance to get that extra bit of moisture out , but sometimes you've got to bite the bullet and bale it rather than have acres & acres left down and lose what quality you have , we try to go around and pick up the greener or damper bales 1st and then these will be used asap , so we dnt have the problem of storing damp and fausty straw ! Seems to work in most cases .

End of the week and boy what a day to finish off with , non stop rain all day !! Late last night saw us get to the finish of the winter barley , with the balers right up behind the combine ,just aswell as we didn't want to leave no straw on the floor and have to go through the pain in the a** of turning straw to dry it ! Today saw the first of the bales coming into the newly purpose built yard adjoining the AD plant , where most of our straw will be stored and occasional corn , the 1st duties for the hire jcb was on stacking duties which will be the main job the season , with smarts backup we should have a no problems arising ,Managed to move the irrigator last night just before the spud ground became a bit of a swamp !! Finally we managed to secure a baby very low houred 09 plate fendt 415 with loader from Redlynch for general jobs around the farm and digestate hauling from the AD plant , a few more developments in the pipeline but nothing set in stone yet .