phil phoenix

We are fully into the silly season on farm and thankfully have enjoyed nine mostly dry days in a row, which has enable the Lex 770 to catch up with the ripe wheat crops after gobbling up our rapeseed. Yields are just below average and quality is a little dissapointing as well. Our rapeseed crops were a real mixed bag, some good yields on heavier soils but some very poor crops on our lighter land. Last year we drilled most of it with a Horsch tiger drill but that was responsible for both the best & worst yields at harvest. So as we begin this years rapeseed planting we will start with the Horsch on 250 acres of heavy soils but then use our Vaderstad drill behind an amazone catros on the remaining 300 acres. The Fendt crawler was hired in with the drilling jobs in mind which leaves our JD 8R to handle cultivations duties into the autumn. With one eye on the forthcoming Maize harvest we decided to upgrade the header on our 4 year old 980 Jaguar. The Orbis 750 never really stretched the 884hp Jag and a demo last year of a 12 row Kemper really impressed. It also was a less expensive option than swapping the 980 for a new 990 Claas machine. The new Kemper arrived last week and the dealers service man helped us fit it to the Jaguar. He will be back in three weeks to set the header up correctly as we start on the earliest maize crops.

Even a 6250R would struggle with that Sumo cultivator, good job the CAT 765 is available.

Very nice work Alex, but I think we both know that JD wont be able to pull it😄.................Should look super behind the 765C though😎

One of the locals who always hires a new NH CR has got the smallest one in the range this year, the very rare CR7.90😎...............Just right for Smithy😁 And a few others as we hit peak harvest in these parts, its mayhem out there!!!!!

Legge Farms added a JCB iCON to their fleet of Fendts back in the spring and as anticipated it got hooked up to their bale chaser for harvest. There are few sights more enjoyable during harvest than watching a rig like this in action in the field. Lovely set up😎

Its a UK reg number on that Porsche.

Nice footage of the combine & JCBs wheels there😁

Rain stopped play.

I really like the latest Macdon's with the smart aluminium reel discs. Just look how low that reel is having to go to pick up the short grass seeds. And very unusual to see wheels on a big Lex (unless its Marge's 1 32world🙄) with such a large header!!

There are four new CRs on my patch this year Joe, ones I know of anyways and they all have the old blue decals. Even Ernest Does two demo combines on their facebook page 10-90 & 9-90 have blue decals!! That new design must be for 2024 machines or ones currently rolling off the proddy line.

Not sure we will see any on farm beyond the September cultivations event, too many things happening in the world, especially late sept going into October.

I decided to upsize the 980's header from 10 to 12 rows with the excellent Kemper 490 from Marge. Quite a few Jags locally have one of these upfront.

I saw a Claas Maxi 118sl last week for the first time in 20 odd years! Its funny how all the bigger models seem to have dissapeared abroad or somewhere, just leaving us smaller 98s & 108s, 204s etc.

New John Deere 6R.185 looks pretty decent. They have actually gotten that bonnet spot on unlike the old britains 6150R which had the same bonnet as the 6210R !!! They just stuck the 6150 on smaller wheels to hide the con!! The front lights, the radiator grill , the wheels/tyres, bonnet detailing on the 6R 185 all look very good. Remove that front hitch and put a weight on it & replace the beacons, spray the wheels yellow and you have quite a good model. Thats what I will do with mine when its released.

Looks cool to me, although it does just look like a bonnet change to me, the rest of the tractor looks like the new upgraded 645. As a Quadtrac fan I hate to say it but that JD looks awesome!

I took these on the weekend. As I have said before the John Deere X9 1100 is the biggest selling model in these parts as Ben Burgess/ Doubledays (Now merged) have sold at least 11 in 2021/22 and probably more this year. Here's Waldersley Estates the biggest local landowners with their two X9s fitted with 50 ft headers🙃 They also had a S790 with 35ft just down the lane helping to cut around 8000acres.

A NH T7.190 is actually 150hp or so and only gives 190 on boost so I guess it will pull the big baler on the flat land but once there's a bale in the chamber & your going up hill you can forget it😁.............Put your Fendt 828 on it Joe.

Our new to us Fendt 943 Challenger has arrived along with a demo Bednar Terraland TN 3 metres Chisel Plough. We are excited to see how well this pairing goes as it could possibly reduce the ploughs use by 50%. We don't have too much for the Bednar to do right away, but enough to see what it can do. Then we will be hitching up the crawler to our Horsch Tiger drill and start drilling Oilseed Rape. This years crop was a mixed bag, some did very well and some was a disaster!! But overall it did well enough to give it another go next year. And the price has been all over the place as yields fluctuate. Our Claas 770 Lexion is already resigned to just grabbing what it can inbetween showers, and drying expenses will be much higher than last years very cheap harvest. On a brighter note 90% of our maize crop looks fantastic, the other 10% was drilled late into dry soils and has struggled. Although a good dowsing with liquid digestate has markedly improved it from poor towards average. We have made a late decision on the maize harvesting machinery, but more about that in the next update.

I watched one of those videos a while back and the only machine that looked really good in yellow was the JD 8RX in the background of that picture.

It needs a nice Macdon header like one of our local farmers has got, mind you its only 41 ft so probably too small😄

Yeah looks nice Joe, I thought it was just the old 175 with a new bonnet stuck on it, but looks like they've done a new casting for the cab.

Finally caught up with Smiths of Soham and their 21 plate NH CR10.90 fitted with a very stylish 41ft MacDon header. Ably supported by a pair of newish Fendt 724s with very smart grey Richard Weston trailers.

I have had a good couple of days combine spotting which started with a brand new Claas Lex 8700 working in rapeseed & bought by "Field" estates. This pairs with a 2019 Lex 770 which had just started in wheat.

its a bit late, both Claas & Deere have had their class11 combines available for three or four years now. I kid you not, but there are at least 11 (probably more) of the X9 1100's round here now (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambs borders) Waldersley's, Caley's, Eubrinks, Eastern Farms & Agriserves all have a pair and some also have one S790!!! And a few 8900s around too. Mind you New Holland have sold/ hired quite a few yellow ones out of my local Littleport branch this year so not all bad news.

You will need to give the MXU a good polish Smithy, can't put those nice black rims on it if the red paint has faded. I've seen some Puma's with a nearly pink roof due to faded paint.