JMG

Those eggs look absolutely perfect - the rest doesn't look too bad either!

Most excellent farm Mark. Can I ask what you have used for straw in the sheds (with the Aberdeen Angus cows and in the calf pen) and also in the round bales, looks spot on.

Nope, the MF130 is a true direct drill, i.e. plants the seed with minimal soil disturbance, in this case using disc coulters - though it could also be used as a traditional drill. The Nordsten was a standrad suffolk coulter drill, for drilling already cultivated ground. In the middle you have cultivator drills, such as in the past Carrier drills and now there are also strip-till drills. Given rising resistant blackgrass, fewer herbicide options and the mounting evidence that leaving blackgrass seed on the surface is the best way of getting control, means I expect more of this in the future. That's not even mentioning the cost of diesel.

Great pictures Josh and interesting to see what you have been upto - keep posting Josh

I don't post regulalry but have seen posts allude to websites previously rather than being named, so guessed that was the convention! Anyway model on its way...

Both on a certain excellent farm models website for purchase now

These are fantastic for carpet farmers and everything I dreamed of as a kid regards remote controlled 1:32 tractors. Electronic hitch is great and lifts all of my implements with no problems. Turning circle only slight issue but off-set by the no. of functions incorporated into these models, whilst remaninig good looking and detailed 1:32 tractors in their own right. Also if you put a heavy weight block on the front hitich, then this helps reduce the steering radius a little. By far the best remote controlled tractor range available, an excelleny buy

One popular use of the Carrier and its ilk is to create a stale seebed to get shed seeds to germinate ahead of a Roundup spray.

A straw harrow is for spreading out the chopped straw evenly across the field. It has heavy duty harrow points, they are I believe popular elsewhere but not in the UK. They are for spreading straw about not cultivating the soil (and may also have some slug control benefits). Jim Bullock a Worcestershire farmer, who is a direct-drill pioneer, swears by them. Good distribution of straw is important to ensure that there is not too much trash in one place, so that the dill doesn't block and can maintain a constant drilling depth. Straw chopper on combine; modern ones are good at producing well chopped straw and spreading it over the full width of the pass (i.e. width of header) but even then a pass with a harrow is likely to worthwhile. Another way as mentioned in the link below is to use a stripper header and drill straight into the standing straw, i.e. no chopping of the straw and no need to harrow. In Oilseed rape, this apparently has the added benefit of making it diffficult for pigeons to land! http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2008/06/04/110704/german-no-till-system-provides-pointers-for-uk-growers.html In terms of the need for crop rotations to keep down the weeds, given my earlier post on returns for break crops (or lack of them), I adovcate fallow with some Green manuring/cover crops.

According to a chap from Andersons the consultant people - on most combinable crop farms, break crops are unprofitable, winter wheat is the one for profit and a first one at that. He was saying that most farms rather than trying to set spring rape etc. following the wet weather last backend, would have been better fallowing to get the best entry for 1st wheat this autumn. Seemed like even winter OSR, was marginal for profit at best. So to keep margins up, shed some machinery and fallow some of the acerage each year. Also direct drill the wheat, after a pass with a straw harrow. Hire in one tractor for autumn drilling, have a mid-range tractor of your own, a sub-soiler, a sprayer, fertiliser spreader (the latter two as big as poss. to get product on in the least ammount of time) and get someone in to do the combining or share with a neighbour. Ensure all kit uses precision famrning technologies to magange everything you are doing. Chop all straw and return to the land to improve soil structure etc. Put un-productove headlands, field corners and even odd-fields into agri-environemtal schemes and then you might get a decent return on investment. To help this lock some of your tomnnage into forward contracts, look for added value contracts and look into hedging/options etc. to manage risk. Could join a co-op and let them market your grain instead, as they will probably do a better job and if you let them dry/store it, you won't have to invest big sums to store grain and can put your buildings to a more profitable use. Also with them being able to blend batches etc., they should get a better price for you. With only one crop type to look after each year, you can do the best job by it re. timelinesss etc. and at certain times of the year actually take some holiday and/or do something with your time that pays a better rate per hour than your farming ;-)

Maize is silage i.e. Grass silage & Maize silage Silage refers to the fact that the feed is preserved due to fermentation in an airtight container, i.e. clamp, wrapped bale, tower silo Maize is cultivated annually, so there is the cost of that and possible soil erosion issues to factor in (i.e. I wouldn't say it is better for the soil than grass), where as grass can be either permanent pasture or leys where the cost of establishing the grass is spread across a no. of years. Grass silage is also a way of utilising surplus grass from grazing pastures in order to maintain pasture quality. Maize can have advantages in producing a more consistent silage quality than grass though and helps as part of a TMR, in terms of intake and adding starch to the diet.

Great pics, Out of interest, which villages were the 900 acres near/which roads were you carting on; as a Staffordshire lad myself I think I may have seen your tattie harvest