SPN

New Holland TL70 in red. Owned by Cork City Council. Red and white are the Cork colours.

JQ T8.345 on the 24 ton Richard Western Chaser Bin. Two 2017 Fendt 724s, a T6080 and a Steyr CVT170 on the road with triple axle Broughans

They are owned by a large farming and farm services company locally. They farm about 3,500 acres in Ireland and have been involved in farming in South America and Eastern Europe as well

Saw a Lexion pass up the road yesterday evening, so went hunting today and with a little bit of help from a friend, I found the trolley. But there wasn't just one trolley. How's that for a find? Two 132 registered (July 2013) 780TTs with consecutive registration numbers.

Wow! Just Wow!

More on the New Holland T6.180 Methane http://agriculture1.newholland.com/eu/en-uk/about-us/whats-on/news-events/2016/new-holland-s-prototype-t6-180-methane-power-tractor

The latest twist in the Mill Farm Organics saga. Photos to follow. July 1st 2017 - Press Release Mill Farm Organics and associated businesses have announced their intention to go Carbon Neutral by December 2030. Mill Farm Organics is a group of businesses operating in the organic farming, organic food processing and wholesale/retail sectors. The businesses are owned by a family trust and have their roots in a milling business established by an ancestor in the late 1700s. Each of the business units in the group has committed to developing a strategic plan to achieve nett carbon neutrality in the period to November 30th 2030. Company spokesman SPN outlined the challenge faced by the businesses in achieving this task. "Farming and food processing are energy intensive operations by their nature, and ruminant animals exhale the climate change gas methane (CH4) as they grow. The Mill Farm Organics group comprises tillage farming, dairy farming, horticulture, beef farming, sheep farming and free range pig farming operations at four sites in Ireland and two sites in Poland. Each of these operations have their own unique challenges when it comes to climate change mitigation" The strategic plan will be developed over the period 2017-2020, with pilot projects to evaluate potential technologies, or implement proven technologies, taking place from 2018. "There are straightforward improvements that can be made in some areas straight away, many of which are simple housekeeping improvements, whereas solutions in other areas will depend on new technologies being developed by equipment manufacturers, or new techniques being developed by agricultural researchers" said SPN. Three major improvements are planned for 2018-2019 - Work will begin on a technical evaluation and obtaining planning permission for the construction of four 2.5MW Wind Turbines at Abbeylands Farm - Farm Scale Anaerobic Digesters will be built at Newpark, Castlebridge and Abbeylands, as well as at partner farms in the region. - Solar Panels will be installed at the Dairy Unit, Horticulture Unit and Food Processing Campus at Milltown to provide power and heat. SPN explained the rationale for this. "These are all proven technologies that can be applied today with off the shelf systems. They are also cost effective technologies that provide a good return on capital investment on their own merits, before even considering their role in reducing the carbon footprint of the business". The move to farm scale anaerobic digesters instead of one centralised AD plant will give a significant reduction in carbon footprint, as well as increasing the value of the product. "Currently the raw material for the centralised AD plant is hauled to Milltown on a weekly basis, with the digestate being hauled back to the originating farms after processing, for use as fertiliser. This approach has a huge carbon footprint in terms of diesel usage for all the road haulage. The new strategy will be to power the Food Campus from solar panels, both electrical and thermal, and for the methane production from the various AD plants to be used for a higher value purpose on the respective farms". This higher value purpose will be to power part of the machinery fleet. New Holland Agriculture has been developing and testing methane powered tractors, and Mill Farm Organics, a long time user of New Holland equipment, plans to be one of the first farming operations to move their fleet to methane power. "We will have the AD capacity in place to fuel a fleet of farm vehicles on methane by 2020", said SPN "and we have told our New Holland Dealer that we will take two methane powered NH T7.225s, and two methane powered NH T6.180s in January 2020, if they can provide them". In the meantime, the business is planning to use an older technology to reduce carbon emissions in the machinery fleet at one of its farms. From January 2018 the machinery operations at the 500 acre beef and tillage operation at Abbeylands is going to be powered by rapeseed oil. Three older MB-Trac tractors, three older Fendt tractors and a Mercedes powered Claas Dominator combine will be converted to run on pure rapeseed oil and these machines will be used to perform all operations on the farm. The rapeseed oil will come from non-organic seed grown under contract by local non-organic tillage farmers. "The Paris Agreement on Climate Change requires Countries to cut their climate change emissions by a minimum of 5% per year, every year to 2050. Agriculture is an area where huge improvements will have to be made if we are to meet the Paris Agreement. Fossil fuel usage, CH4 emissions from animals and NOx emissions from fertiliser are key areas where we need to focus attention, but there is also great scope for agriculture to develop ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it in the soil. Mill Farm Organics is determined to be at the forefront of this revolution and to be able to showcase new and proven technologies to the farming community in order to help make the transition to a zero carbon economy happen as quickly as possible" said SPN.

Family day out at my sisters to celebrate our mother's birthday. My 10 year old nephew is mad into a farm simulator game on PS4. Was delighted to see his tractor choices: NH T7.310HD Blue Power, NH 8340 and a pair of CASE 1455s. He went out for a while and his 8 year old cousin decided to drive around the game "world" in the farm pickup. She got bored after a while and parked the pickup in a river. Much hilarity ensued when he came back and went looking for the pickup. I had to do an hour of contract work, spreading fertiliser with a Zetor Forterra and a NH T6, and spraying with a CASE Optum, in order to "earn" the money to pay for a new pickup. A great day out.

926 is model #1025, so coming up soon.

What are the differences? Front and rear linkages wasn't it? I must invest in a 514C at some stage.

I remember my Grandfather not getting the maize in the ground until June one year. With tongue in cheek I asked him if that meant it had to be called Joonze

Great to have you back on the job Sean. Really looking forward to seeing how things progress at Ash Tree.

Super photo. Did anyone else look at this and think of Mark Channell's ploughing escapade?

Brian is from up your part of the country. Here's the record of his builds, going back to 2009. Some amazing pieces in there.

I have a couple of obsolete models and some parts coming from a Continental seller since the beginning of January. Finally got the tracking number today. According to tracking system the parcel has been sitting in a depot (I am told it is Yodel, but Yodel don't operate in Ireland) since the middle of January. This is going to be annoying. I just know it.

You can send the 8100 to me and I'll photograph it with my 717.

We need to organise a day out for you carting silage with a T7 or somesuch. Cure this rare phobia you have.

Definitely a 12 tonner. Thanks for that.

Can you advise the dimensions of the tipping body. 152mm x 76mm gives us 16'x8' and 12 tonnes.

Been looking at Polish videos on YouTube to get ideas for a small diorama for a Polish arable farm. Thankfully their sheds are quite similar to those made by Mason's Attic, so I think I know what I'm going to do.

What paint are you using for the steel and the concrete Wayne? I've just done some Mason's Attic frames and it's hard to find a paint that will take on the burned surfaces.

That's a massive improvement Paul. Really looks the part.

"You've got to know when to hold 'em Know when to fold 'em Know when to walk away And know when to run " - Kenny Rogers

Have you considered using a front axle and wheels from the Scaledown Ford 5000 6X?

That's two of us so. Brian. Just do it!