jakescot

sorry to hear your new Brian..............similar here too, we lost a nice fella, 2nd cousin of dads, 2 weeks ago.........to cancer, here`s hoping medical advances hurry up and find better treatment that save more folks...

as posted elsewhere, heavy rain with thunder and lightning here with us...seems to be past now however phew !!!

thanks Nick no not boring at all, good stuff thank you very much finding the right machine at the right price is the biggest challenge I`d suggest . size wise would probably be more what was available rather than me choosing the size first off. Ol yes obviously the more rings the better for ground coverage BUT I`ve hills,some big hills at that and only 100hp so wouldnt be looking to go too big, as I say the availability of used machines here in the uk is bound to be limited. thanks again though guys , I really feel we have a lot to learn about managing our grasslands more efficiently and could definately learn a lot from NZ

aye tris, just one of those days.not improved much today either, twisted my ankle again, and the weather forecast probably means I`m gonna have to get busy tomorrow rather than waiting to round bale my silage until my much preferred option of wilting it til monday

and here`s us often debating when folks post up pics of their conversions..........." looks great but that red is the wrong colour "etc etc etc........... each to his or her ( remember the t1tty pink JD) own it looks like eh?

well thanks Nick..very useful.....................................right its a kinda long story , if you are sitting comfortably I`ll begin................ he he potted version............................ok due to the type of land we have ie plenty of stones, much of our good land is prone to flooding, reseeding is a bit of a problem and ploughing much of the silage ground isnt an option .Some is also due to an archaeological site being present (old roman fort ) Various ways have been tried over the years. one of the best was when S A I in 1985 promoted the idea of using an aitchison type drill and putting fert in the little T or bulb shaped coulter track with the grass seed. we have used it a fair few times over the years but eventually bought einbock tined grass harrows and over seed that way... now it`s down to me , I`d like to get into a regular re seeding program and for me, the over seeding can be quite hit or miss much dependant on the weather. The drilling option is far more reliable and therefore i`m considering getting hold of a drill,with the aitchison at the moment being my first choice and was just wondering how durable and hard wearing , how expensive the parts were and was there any obvious design flaws in the aitchison drill

very odd Magnum Erik, any idea why they had triple rowcrops on it?.....................do you get a lot of that dull dark cloudy but dry weathe?............. we only occasionally get spells like that round here, it can be great to get on with work when its like that

my 7840 pto stopped working replaced the fuse 2 hours later we still couldnt find the problem , phoned the mechanic within 5 mins he`d diagnosed a faulty but not completely not working , pto switch. however, now successfully by passed meantime using some of my ebay wiring terminal purchases after being told " WTF are you wantin with all those?" then the guy using it arrived back 2 hours later with a broken blade bar on the topper ! > add that to me not being able to get on with cutting silage for folks arriving for various things, one to see me about buying my spring fertiliser, one to see me just because he was passing, one to try to sell me feedstuff, dad just to see me ,cousin just to see what i was doing and numerous phone calls !!!!!!! frustrating day for sure but thats the silage all cut for the year now , finished at 7 45 tonight

sounds to me that blake is rather more infamous than famous !!!! ;D well, you are only young once !

been just told today not to bother too much with spraying the urea........yes the guy told me ( I ordered next springs fert today because the price is due to keep rising they tell me ) the urea will help the chemical but he said he knows of nobody round here using liquid fert.....very wet and he says it might tend to run off as often we spread when the ground is quite bare of vegetation............he also added I`d be better to get used to the sprayer first before trying to use it too much . do you know much about the aitchison drills Ol?

I am impressed with the quality of the land round you Gav, Ive been at wells once delivering cattle to chalk hill farm, was a gorgeous day, 31st october , we stayed the night in the truck lodge at fleet on the fens. you are havin fun trying out tractors eh...........the gps systems are finding favour round here too most of the bigger dairy boys have them now all citing fuel, fertiliser and chemical savings as a justification on the cost........few will be lookin at the full system however. i looked into trimble through the claas dealer, he had only one unit left and it was a bit too much for me this year. when you take everything into account, the decision we made to buy the claas 3 yrs ago was probably a wrong one based on their resale value now against anything other than a new claas. The fendt may be way too expensive for the most of us, and I`d find it hard to justify the purchase of one.....who knows however, you may get the MF and it be everything you are looking for, a fendt in a red livery ;D ;D but more affordable !. keep the updates coming

I will keep you posted Ol..........might actually look into the liquid N now!!!!! Simon, yes PA 1 and PA 2 everyone has to do PA 1 or they wont let you do PA 2 or PA 6 , testing the sprayer I was gonna leave to the guys I bought it from but I hear what you say about doin as much myself.......I have as yet not received a replacement manual but once I get that I`ll have a proper look round it and see whats what first I think. I see a bit that needs welding on the gull wing support strut,a wee bit one the front frame could do with tidying up,it`s had a home repair weld already, a burst outer skin on the big liquid pipe,about half way along one boom and thats about it, other than that it looks very serviceable considering its older........ It came from J Brewster, Boclair farm near glasgow i reckon based on the name on the box the control unit and all the bits came in. the industry is very different from how it was when I started out...........too many govt controls and yes we all sit back and take it ! just wait til there are no wee family farms left , big big farming operations making mega bucks for their shareholders I see in the future. And remember , we will still all have to eat and with a planet population growing rapidly the demand for food will increase

not thinking of doing so Ol, as you perhaps read above Simon suggested similar.........it doesnt go on round here on the grass ............on reflection it actually might be something worth looking into.....would need to be affordable and readily available.

Just grassland weeds Ol...............docks, thistles, nettles and bracken on some of our rougher areas...probably do some re seeding so roundup burn offs too....... I don`t grow cereals. provided I`ve got all my paperwork I`ll can do a bit for anyone locally who might need some done too.

thank you Simon......... .......liquid fert not really an option for me and with a very limited budget.............with much trepidation , I phoned my friend and asked about the sprayer I mentioned above . He knew nothing about it but told me he`d find out and could I call him back. i did this and have become the new owner of the said sprayer ...its older, a bit worn however it was reduced from the £1950 asking price to £1300.........end of season special. It has a 1000 litre tank , chemical mix tank ,tank wash facility,foam marker, 18 m gull wing booms and electronic controls. time will tell how i get on with it I suspect its a bit higher spec than I really need so whether I pass it on for a newer smaller 12m version will depend on how much it is going to take to put it through the test. I also have to now sit and pass my certification test............3 days at college,yikes.......Ive never spent one day there in my life before !

thank you bill, yes both, double celebration of our first wedding anniversary and another birthday................

help required again please guys......................got a lot of spraying to do over the next couple of years, had planned to have some done this year but looks like it wont happen now however. Whether to buy or get a contractor in has been an issue Ive been considering for a while now.There are so few guys that do it round here,getting them when you need and or want them is getting very difficult and given our wet westerly airstream too the number of suitable weather windows is also quite low compounding the problem. I`d not be looking for anything too fancy necessarily,with only 530 acres of grass here you can see it wouldnt be needed for a huge amount of work, 1000 or 1200 litres with 12m perhaps 18m booms prob enough and couldnt jusitfy anything too expensive. I would want to be able to isolate and use either boom independantly and would be looking for it to lift probably high enough to clear our dykes(walls not ditches) so 5 to 6 feet.All this I`m told is pretty standard so I guess it would come down to price and parts availability. With only 530 acres here you can see it wouldnt be needed for a huge amount of work having looked around a bit I find one of our local dealers is selling a gambetti 1000l.........don`t know any other details as yet as I`m waiting on the guy phoning me back with info but I just wondered what you guys know of and thought of these machines compared to Allman , Hardi, Knight, Technoma, Berthoud etc . thanks in advance

gone all cloudy here with me recently, in the last half hour , been cutting grass and doin stuff in the garden and the sun was hot up at 22 c earlier

one of these times you really wish you had your camera...........couple of days ago as I was feeding the pet lambs, I just happened to glance up to the top of the valley when I saw this very black cloud, at this time of year round here typically the thunder type clouds , I didnt pay too much attention as I was watching their water tub fill up from the tank we use when I started to see a dark upside down ice cream cone shaped cloud coming down from below the big dark cloud........very weird and I remember seeing on the tv a program about tornados and the start of them out of the thunder clouds ...........by the time i`d taken in what I was looking at ,a layer of white cloud had formed and drifted across below after which the funnel just disappeared.oh and my point,sorry, thundery showery broken weather up here where its a struggle to get 2 dry days together.

ive enjoyed my wee tour round cornwall Cerin thank you very much......cool pictures .....in fact better than just cool, some very arty atmoshperic ones too. weird though, even though the guys were on field work with the tatties in Feb, your silage wasnt any earlier than ours..........quite a lot of grain growing your way too considering the wet west reputation, I know you are a long way south of me but with our wee corner having the gulf stream influence we`re very wet. must try to get some shots of my odd selection of kit too

bit late but there are mostly bomfords or mconnels up here, I knew of 3 spearheads up here of which 2 have been replaced by bomfords.......................the guy nearest us that cuts the roadsides for the council has the spearhead, in the grass its fine give it rough stuff to do and the lad that uses it breaks it.......

well mine are already used up here I thought I told you to turn the tap off oh right its just the pipe that goes in the water I ve got you now. I thought I got wet feet last night when I came back from the pub your supposed to move out before you flood the paddy field

this is pretty much how I understand it too PR........we usually do apply it after ploughing but we tend not to plough so deep here ..........too many stones and the guys who do it all have big sprung front axle tractors with cab suspension,,they cant always go that fast either due to the slopes. I know a big batch of land round here changed hands oh , some 25 yrs ago,........guy was a good farmer so did some ditching,draining,fencing all prior to the much needed reseed.he didn`t however get the fields tested for lime until he had actually started ploughing.much to his disbelief, the testing showed no lime required which for us round here with all our rain is very unusual. the samples were re tested and this showed to be indeed the case. It was eventually discovered the lime had been applied and ploughed down some 15 years previously!!!!!!!!..... however, the seedsmen are recommending to us on our grasslands that we should apply the lime this year to give it time to start to work before next years crop.this is what I`ll do once I can afford to start a proper re seeding program.

and magnesium limestone is yellowy, even seen some with a pinky tinge to it, was told it was quick lime

thanks guys, and gals its not been much fun for sure......................it continues today, just learned I`M probably goin to have to replace bot top crowd rams on my fl80 loader......GRRRRRRRRRR 480 QUID APIECE the guy quoted me