phil phoenix

I think the JCB showed the NH up Joe, A L Lee farm in excess of 10,000 acres these days and have been very loyal to the local NH branch for the most part. They run approx 20+ T7210s all current shape and hire in another 10+ in the busy harvesting months. They used to have big Fords (8970s) but once JD got a foot in the door everything above 165hp is now Green & Yellow. And Claas pinched the combine business a dozen years ago. Im told the smaller tractors will remain blue as long as they are cheaper than JD. Ernest DOEs always go more than the extra mile for them as well.

And finally in the planting field two newish New Holland T7.210s plus 4 row Grimme planters, along with a one year old New Holland 742 telehandler and also a brand new JCB 542-70 A.L Lee used to run Manitou handlers then CAT, tried a blue NH but didnt like it, and now have a yellow one which their driver said aint very good, and finally have bought their first JCB which apparently is a "Different class" to everything else theyve used or demoed. 2000 acres of spuds to go in and three gangs planting, I will keep an eye out for the others.

In the field next door were three JCB 4220s on stone seperators , I liked the smart black row crop wheels.

Last Sunday the Potato planting gang belonging to A.L.Lee arrived in the village with lots of new machines😊 The lead tractors were a pair of new JD 8.370Rs with standen power ridgers. Must admit they look better in the flesh than they did in the launch pictures.

Also 4 new Valtra T234s in grey metallic with black wheels, probably my current favourite Valtra colour combination.

Here you go, confirmation from TNS Facebook page.

Yes David, The 7 cylinder MT775e has a bad reputation for reliability, whereas its bigger brother the 800 series are generally sound. Quite a few 865/ 875s in these parts and mostly between 6 and 12 years old. On my last visit to my local AGCO dealer I was rather surprised to see a number of MF8700 Series models in the yard. Some looked like they were in for servicing pre hectic planting season and others were brand new! I then discovered that the ever expanding Pretoria Energy Maize company have ordered a fleet of 10!!!!!!!!!! new 8740S & 8732S machines.........Yowser😆................Ive no idea whats being replaced as they currently run several NH T7HD & T7 short wheelbase machines. Clearly they are aiming too pull fewer trailers but move up to tri axles I suspect. Tri axle tankers and 16 row maize drills are already part of their fleet, but more tankers and perhaps 24 row drills are on the way no doubt. Anyway I think the current 8740S models with the new exhaust system are the bees knees and way better looking than the new 8S models, especially with that S Series bonnet😍...................Clearly there is no money in food production farming, but piles of it in energy and electric production. Ive noticed these MF8700S series tractors are easily the most popular big MFs since the old 8400s. The 8600s hardly sold any, nor did the early 8700s. Maybe after 10 years development they finally have a product farmers want, they are still a long way behind Fendt 900s and JD 8Rs in the popularity stakes, but id say they were a solid 3rd place in the 300/ 400hp bracket.

Thanks Joe...............Thats the trouble with quite a few of these modern implements theres no instructions! The side tip Krampe was on the verge of being sold until I realized it could be reset to be a normal tipper trailer, and just like the standard version its superbly built and detailed.

Another busy week on the farm and a couple of deals have been struck. Firstly we were finally persuaded by the area Krampe salesman to purchase a tri axle multi use trailer. We already have an 18ton Krampe Silage trailer plus a cereals trailer with the side tip option which is useful. A 30 ton hook lift which can be left in the field during wheat harvesting and allow one man to keep on top of grain carting if necesary will be useful. And also be used as a tipper on maize and wholecrop. The trailer should arrive before months end. On Monday our trusty old JD 3050 left the farm and has gone to a good home and a SG2 cab enthusiast. Its replacement was viewed on Tuesday, bought the next day and arrived on Friday. The 14 year old Fendt 716 is a classic and in its various upgrades ran from 98 to 2013 before the newer shape was introduced. Our Gen 2 model has run up a modest 7000 hours under two owners and will be ideal in the back up roll to our front line machines. Its throaty roar, vario gearbox and comfortable ride are already appreciated by the farm staff. Our 10,000 hours MF 3120 & Ford 7810 will continue on light duties as required. Our main contractor has been doing deals as well. Bill Legge had been testing a new Fendt MT900 series on his Kockerling cultivator for a couple of days and felt it was well matched. However he then rigged it up on his own 400 acre farm to pull a 6m Horsch tiger drill and found the tractors limits in sticky conditions! His 845C Challenger is about 60 hp more but quite a bit heavier and just about copes in all but the heaviest conditions with the Horsch unit, which drilled all our 400 acres of rapeseed for this season. This made up his mind to look for another 800 series going forward. And as luck would have it TNS had just sold their first new MT1100 series Fendt onto a Suffolk farm which in return was trading in a 4 seasons old 875E tractor with just over 2000 hrs on the clock. Bills 845c has over 9000 hrs on it so he was well pleased to get first refusal on the 600hp beast. Its a bit of a jump up in power and will easily boss his current kit, but theres lots of scope now for extra capacity and he doubts it will use much more fuel than the 845 he is trading in. His operator is due back on our farm this week, hopefully with the 875 to continue working ground down in front of our maize drilling team which will commence sowing in 7-10 days time. This week we will be carting maize off fields where it has been stored in plastic sheeting. 2 or 3 carting tractors and our newish Manitou loadall will be on the job. Muck spreading, tanker digestate spreading and fertilizer spreading and spraying will keep the rest of our team busy.

Excellent layout Sean, Is it time for a 3000 series yet?

Who makes those Discs 1/32?

My JD ones somewhere in there Hugh............I hope😉

Where will the new Claas 8900 fit in your display case Chris? You will need to sell a whole shelfs worth of models to make room for it😂

We sent out the Fendt 724 out on some additional fertilizer spreading work this week to assist the bigger wheeled Amazone rig keep on top of things. We had to dual up her back wheels due to the softness of ground we still have across the farm. Certain fields just wont allow the JD/ Amazone wheeled rig to travel so the dual Fendt is attempting to get some much needed fertilizer on the crops. On Saturday morning our main contractor Bill Legge dropped in with his new Kockerling Vector cultivator on the back of a Fendt MT940 Demonstrator tractor from Thurlow Nunns, he is due to start working down our fields ear marked for Maize, along with another sizeable acreage belonging to our various neighbours. Bill currently has a 10 year old Challenger 845C and is debating whether to go bigger or smaller with a replacement machine this spring. Nunns are looking too shift one of their trade in 775Es his way but they are 80hp less than his current machine and dont have a good reliability record either. A new or ex demo Fendt is another possibility the dealer is pushing but would be rather expensive. He currently favours another 800 series if he can find the right machine at the right price. He will be sending over his other operator later this week to pull our new Pichon muck spreader with his JD7290R, provided the weather holds that is.

Early morning in the yard and the 6250 is on its way to the AD Plant to get its first load. And our trusty old JD 3050 2wd is being photographed with a view to being sold shortly. It will be sad to see her go but we have two other old yard tractors that are both 4wd and more useful to us. What we are now looking for is a more powerful and modern classic to take her place. Basically all our implements and trailers are getting bigger and we need a useful runabout that has enough muscle to help out with jobs big and small. Last year our Massey 3120 was charged with pulling our old Lexions 25ft header from field to field for example, this year we have a new bigger machine coming with a bigger header. So the new classic runabout needs to be able to safely move the trailer around instead of us using a newer frontline tractor for the task which would leave us short elsewhere. We want a tractor that is well built has a 50k box and will hold its value well into the future. Recently we have been looking at a JD 7710 & 6920S plus a couple of older Fendts. We are looking at a few more this week.

Very smart Smithy, Thats the red Puma version of the MK1 NH 6070 isnt it? a bit beefier than your 135 Maxxum. Looks in good condition. One of Goodies other customers?

Smithy always has the last word in his household......................"Yes Dear"😄

I like the exhaust, its very impressive! Im not sure they will sell many though as 4 track machines have really taken over now, John Deere seem to be giving away 9RX machines knowing that once a farm goes green they seldom go back😠 I got told today that one farm that has been running a 845E for 3 seasons are waiting for a demo of the beast above, they changed up from a MT 775E because it couldnt pull their biggest cultivator fast enough so hopefully they wont be joining the mass exodus into the JD 8RX. Ben Burgess claims they have already put 23 off the 8RXs onto east anglian farms and I know Doubledays are in double figures also. Meanwhile the local CASE Dealer is desperately trying to find a home for their demo Rowtrac, I hate it when things get this one sided, spread the business around so we get plenty of different colour machines I say.

Look at this!! Thurlow Nunns new Demonstrator Fendt 1162................Now that is Ridiculously good looking😍

I regretted letting my Fendt 820 & 716 Gen3 go so I recently grabbed the opportunity to buy a Fendt716 Gen2 with the very nice wheels & tyres. Bonnet decals are much better than those on the early UH 818 model of the same era. I can still remember seeing the first 716 back in 1998 at The Smithfield show at Earls Court🙂

6215R and 6250R parked up and ready for the next days work🙂

Great pictures as always David, especially liked the Fendt 718 on the Standen seperator. Was that Standens own personal tractor? They certainly do have one like that.

Thought I would add a few Fendt pics taken in Thurlow Nunns yard March 2012 of the outgoing "last off the production line" 820s sat next to the ugly new machines ha ha!.

Today we took delivery of a 7 metre Zurn whole crop header from our local John Deere dealer. It was their demo model last year with little wear on it and fits our Jag with no problems. The Claas dealer had a 5 metre version available but we felt 7m was best for the big Jaguar and the deal was to good to miss! And frankly I prefer the yellow colour over the Claas green colour version.

Some nice Fendts there Joe................Ive got the 720 and a designline 724 on my new layout along with Deeres, CASE and NH Ive also just bought a Gen2 716 which was on ebay for 60 quid incl. pp which was too good to miss, really like the chunky wheels and tyres on the gen 2/3 Fendts. Regret selling my old gen3 model a few years ago.