Light Land

Maize planter looks good Alex.Much crop being grown free this year?

Your last picture captures the scene well Alex. Very nice. 

Wonderfully detailed pictures Sean, really nice. 

Jumping on the band wagon , doesn't it tick you off sometimes when you try to evolve topics and try to make them true to life as possible for the sole purpose that we all enjoy what we do and enjoy all the different layouts , then bang all the little negative jibes and comments appear ! Keep on rolling Alex the story and topics just keep on getting better and interesting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Offence is taken not given. Negative comments,no comments,probing questions your going to get them all much like life. As you touched on different layouts reflect different peoples bent/interest and what there trying to achieve and at the end of the day as long as your happy doing what ya doing that's all that matters really. PM'ing a question is at times a more respectful why of asking a question that would just clutter up a persons topic other wise if it's abit left of center or might be taken as picking holes. 

I found instead of trying to spark more technical discussion with my Eastbank layout it was better to join a real farming form and just enjoy ftf for what it is. 

It would yes Sean, with CTF its high investment and to make it work you have to be strict. A true CTF system the wheelings take up something like 22% field area, by putting in another set of wheelings running a bale chaser to the side will instantly double that. The idea is the more than 75% field area is not driven on, yields increase by 18%, shallower faster cultivations as you don't need slow deep cultivations to put right trafficking all over the field, this results in less diesel, better uptake of fertilisers and chemicals, better moisture retention and drainage, all in coupled with a wider rotation, cover crops and increasing soil organic matter results in healthier soils=better yields=higher margins. Its something everyone needs to pay more attention to with ever more chemical resistancy, shocking rates of soil eroision and UK yields plateauing its time to act before its too late. UK farmers cannot continue to farm as we do now, we really neglect our soils and we won't stay competitive as a market, and with increasing problems such as blackgrass and losing active ingredients in chemicals left right snd centre, we need to go back to basics and learn from our friends overseas particularly NZ. A handful of dynamic progrssive UK farms are embracing these systems and changing farming practices and i have great respect for them.

Aussie is big on ctf as you'll know Alex as they have some very difficult soils that repeal water and will blow away. There limiting factor is often the compaction and the moisture loss from dealing with it hence try not to make compaction to start with and to be fair basic cropping of cereals/rape with wide seeders make it easyer to fit ctf in.If you want to wise up on somthing your right it's best to look at a part of the world were it's old hat to them. I've worked with ctf in Canada and oddly enough it was to get traction on the hard tramlines so you could pull big impairments with out dry bogging as the land was to soft naturally in places.  If compaction is the limiting factor to yield why don't you you look into the kinsey/albrcht system of managing soils they have proven in many country's you can put right low om,compaction,low yields with very detailed soil maps and working with the current cec and  balancing out soils to help them stay in good shape even with root crops being grown on the land.

There was an interesting write up in the English farmers weekly a while back saying English farmers were falling behind in farm profitability when they were compared with Holland and NZ so it's interesting to read of your interest in progression. I had the chance to work with an a young English bloke last harvest as we had a contractor combine our seed raddish. while setting the combine up I asked him what he thought of cropping here and back in England and he said in summary " there aren't many cropping farms left here now but the ones that are still going for them it's really "game on" they are trying to make as much money as they can knowing it's all they are going to get. Maybe the hungry dog runs faster.    

Skin quality is everything in the UK Ol as British tend to eat them with the skin left on so all in boxes rather than bulk.

Interesting, if the cap fits ware it hey.

Going to put boards on the bottom of the boxes so you can pick them up?

Is bulk spuds not popular in the UK? Alex?

I thought that too,How many kg of spuds do you get in a Britain box Alex?

Cold and wet with -5 on the farm, tractor work is up to date with most of the wheat in the ground. Off to listen to some of top arable farmers from around the world talk about fert,crops,irrigation today.

70% of farmers think they are in the top 10%, this should be a good test and show were the gaps are in my arable understanding. 

More nice work Sean,if you listen carefully you can almost hear the pigs and the rattle of the loader tractor hitting bumps around the yard.

Plenty of pictures  Clear/bright days are not common in Ireland?? 

Really looks like old grassland were the chopper is working,nice.

Can you put bark chips from forestry in an AD plant?

How do the tracks fear doing all the road work you do Alex? I was reading some were the other day that long trips heat up the tracks and damage them. 

Them tunnels look impressive Mike, are they heated for?

Interesting Dave. Yes sadly alot of law makers have no idea about farming. It's a tool to be used in some condition's just like a plough we all know to well if you abuse it it's not good for the land but to say it has no place is just ignorance.

Running around with a carrier after harvest then spraying with an abused tool like round up isn't the fix all people claim. 

Thought you'd like them pattie pie. In return my mate is helping me with tractor work to take the load off me at the nut house.

They are good in rice by all accounts them stripper headers, what did you think of it?

In a land far far away...........

Helped a South African mate move his 700 cows from the dairy farm 7 hours walk to there winter kale on another farm. Because the price of milk is so low they had to walk top save money on trucking them.

loading a truck at dawn with cows he's selling.

Typical......Contractor turns up to fill the center pivot ruts with fine gravel after the pivots first year it's cut ruts in the ground so the gravel helps the pivot last longer.

Passed heaps of cows already grazing kale/beet.

It's not all low input/output dairy in NZ, plenty of indoor systems have poped up in the last few years milking huge Canadian Holsteins.

In real life would you have housing for all the drivers near the yard with a person keeping the housing tidy and cooking and running meals out to the drivers?

Why didn't ya plough the grass paddock smithy ol pal?

Top job Mark

Irritation as we call it! Although it is our own man made lake for the purposes of irrigation we do have 2 abstraction licences to protect the surrounding environment which cover up to >2000 cubic metres a day.

Lucky to use lake water,bit warmer than well water and cheaper to pump.

The blessid irrigation season looms hey Alex. You were saying at the start of the topic you suck water from a lake, is it a free hit there with no water quota or regulations around water use? 

What sort of flow are you pumping?

3mtrs around each paddock...........land must be cheap there Dave 

Cor you can't miss a week in here with out a bit of catching up. Do you do your own agronomy? if so you must be full time walking the land now hey?

Is loader wagon silage not as popular as made with a chopper there Julian? I read a wee write up by a big  claas dealer/silage contractor here saying a loader wagon is better value for the farmer and contractor alike than runing a chopper and all the comes with it unless your cutting miles away from the bunker in a heavy crop. The same there is it?