SPN Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 Oliver Walston has published the [url=http://www.thriplow-farms.co.uk/annual/2008.htm]2008 Diary recently. Some change from 1970s! In 1974/75/76 he purchased 16 new tractors (thirteen of them Fords - well who wouldn't buy mid-70s Fords if they had the chance?). He is now down to 4 tractors, 3 of which were bought in the last three years. A Fendt 818 and two John Qs. The 4th tractor - unless I am mistaken - is a 2001 Claas Challenger. I look forward to reading this Diary every year. I hope you enjoy it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nashmach Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 Yep read that a month ago quite an interesting read but he forgot to mention cutting wheat at 28% moisture content :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 I do like Oliver Walston, he's a bit of a wide boy and very charismatic.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbo Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 As well as Fords in the 70's and 80's, Thriplow Farms were one of the few in the UK who used Schluter tractors as their prime movers. It was also interesting to read in last years diary that when he replaced his tractors he asked the drivers what they wanted to drive rather than just buying his own preference of machine, hence one Fendt and one JD. I have been a fan of Olivers for some time and I have the series "Against the Grain" on DVD, many farmers disagree with him but there is no doubt that he always sparks a good debate. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nashmach Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Can't be many that disagree with him over his stance on sugar beet - he proved a real thorn in British Sugar's side this year and nearly single handley forced them to increase their price by £2 a tonne I believe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CX820Joe Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Its always a good read, his annual diary - and if you can get it, the book 'Outbursts' which came out in the late 80's is well worth a read too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted January 1, 2012 Author Share Posted January 1, 2012 Oliver Walston's 2011 diary is now online, together with lots of new photos. http://www.thriplow-farms.co.uk/index.html The fleet now consists of a new Claas 760tt Combine, a new Challenger MT765C, and three Fendts (930, 820 & 714) All the 'orribles have been scrapped (at long last!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbo Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 I always like to read his yearly updates although this years does seem shorter than previous ones. I hope that he is recovering from his stroke and that he continues to remain positive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted December 28, 2018 Author Share Posted December 28, 2018 The 2018 Diary is now online. No new machinery though. http://thriplow-farms.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2018.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 I liked to go back in time with these reports, they were really good in the 80s when Oliver was buying lots of John Deere SG2 cabbed tractors, then once it got into the late 90s it lost interest as machinery purchases started to dry up...……………………………………..and now they have completely...…………..0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted December 8, 2019 Author Share Posted December 8, 2019 And then there was the 2019 diary - with a twist. http://thriplow-farms.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2019.pdf Lots of stuff about crops or some such, but no new machinery. Tractor fleet, as far as I can figure, is a 714, 724 and 930. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JEP Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 Must admit, I find it interesting looking back at old tractor/combine fleets on big estates - to see what type of fleets they ran. Used to get some good overviews/articles in magazines now long gone - like crops and arable farmer magazines. Looking at the Walston reports - (and looking at previous buys/sells) it appears the 1987 tractor fleet consisted of all John Deere (x12) - 2140 (x4) 2850 (x2) 3140 (x1), 4040 (x1), 4240S (x1) 4650 (x2) 4850 (x1), with 3 Class combines - 106 (x2) 116 (x1) By 1992 - this had morphed into 8 John Deere tractors and 2 Claas combines. JD 2850 (x2) JD 3140 (x1) 4250 (x1) 4650 (x2) JD 7800 (x1) and a flagship JD 4955 (x1) Combines had become Claas Maxi 108's. (x2) Another point - harvest 1984 - was a Claas 116, two Claas 106's and an IH 1480, which on around approx. 2200 acres of combinable crops - seems well over capacity?. Think I need to get more............... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CX820Joe Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 They are great to read back, that's true. I suppose 4 combines was a bit much but I think the Axial Flow was a bit of a flop. There was a large farm near where I used to live and they ran 9 or 10 tractors on around 1000 acres back in the early 1990s. They farm 700 acres now with I think 3 tractors. They always only ran 1 combine, a Dominator 96 until 1994, than a 118 Maxi and now a Lexion 480! They had a fair potato acreage earlier on but that's gone now, all cereals. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted December 10, 2019 Author Share Posted December 10, 2019 (edited) 4 hours ago, JEP said: Must admit, I find it interesting looking back at old tractor/combine fleets on big estates - to see what type of fleets they ran. Used to get some good overviews/articles in magazines now long gone - like crops and arable farmer magazines. Looking at the Walston reports - (and looking at previous buys/sells) it appears the 1987 tractor fleet consisted of all John Deere (x12) - 2140 (x4) 2850 (x2) 3140 (x1), 4040 (x1), 4240S (x1) 4650 (x2) 4850 (x1), with 3 Class combines - 106 (x2) 116 (x1) By 1992 - this had morphed into 8 John Deere tractors and 2 Claas combines. JD 2850 (x2) JD 3140 (x1) 4250 (x1) 4650 (x2) JD 7800 (x1) and a flagship JD 4955 (x1) Think I need to get more............... My spreadsheet has only 3x2140s in 1987, and the last 3140 gone by 1992. I also have a Fendt GTA turning up in 1978, but no record of it being disposed of. 1978 would be my favourite year, with a Ford 3000, 5000x3, 6600x3, 7600, 8600, Deitz 8006x2 and Deutz 10006x2, Schluter 7800x2 and Fendt GTA. Although 2010 was agreat year too - all the yellow wheels were out the gate by 2010. Edited December 10, 2019 by SPN 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JEP Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 7 minutes ago, SPN said: My spreadsheet has only 3x2140s in 1987, and the last 3140 gone by 1992. I also have a Fendt GTA turning up in 1978, but no record of it being disposed of. 1978 would be my favourite year, with a Ford 3000, 5000x3, 6600x3, 7600, 8600, Deitz 8006x2 and Deutz 10006x2, Schluter 7800x2 and Fendt GTA. Although 2010 was agreat year too - all the yellow wheels were out the gate by 2010. Given how they keep records, would of thought they would have plenty of old photos - would love to spend an afternoon browsing through the 70's and 80's photo albums of thriplow! Indeed 1978 would have been a good year to have a look around. If you look on YouTube - farming diary part 1, (about 22 mins in total) it is the 1980 harvest, with footage of the two dominator 85's, and the 105, plus a demo/evaluation IH 1460. Also a Schulter 7800 pulling a big set of discs. Great era for farming/machinery. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CX820Joe Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 There are 32 pages of photos in the 35 Harvests Book, I think it's out of print now. They go back to the 1940s but are mainly 70s/80s/90s. They used the 2 Schluter E7800s on the Bush Hog discs, they worked better when straw could be burnt though. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted December 10, 2019 Author Share Posted December 10, 2019 Does anyone know what tractors were being traded for the new ones when Oliver took over in 74? I'd also love to know the story of the oddballs, like the MF1200, Ford 3000 and 8600, and the Fendt GTA. And the grass dryer - I think I had the brochure for the CLAAS grass dryer once upon a time. I would love to see pics, or videos, of this in operation. (I loved the 70s, in case you hadn't figured that out) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b_emmons Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 19 hours ago, SPN said: Does anyone know what tractors were being traded for the new ones when Oliver took over in 74? I'd also love to know the story of the oddballs, like the MF1200, Ford 3000 and 8600, and the Fendt GTA. And the grass dryer - I think I had the brochure for the CLAAS grass dryer once upon a time. I would love to see pics, or videos, of this in operation. (I loved the 70s, in case you hadn't figured that out) not sure if this will help 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b_emmons Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 (edited) and some photo's here https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=claas+apollo&qpvt=CLAAS+APOLLO&FORM=IGRE http://farmingforum.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?21558-Grass-drying-systems Edited December 11, 2019 by b_emmons 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CX820Joe Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 In 1953, there were 13 tractors on the farm: 5 Nuffield 4 Fordson 2 Allis-Chalmers 1 Minneapolis Moline 1 John Deere there were 3. Massey Harris SP combines and a trailed MM too, this from an appendix in the book. I would guess the 1200 was bought as it was a big tractor for its day, and OW did like to buy British built kit where possible. The tool carrier was I assume to speed up beet hoeing? There is a photo of the Apollo in the book, I'll try and take a photo of a photo (so to speak) later 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CX820Joe Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 A few poor photos of some of the 1970s photos from the book 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted December 17, 2020 Author Share Posted December 17, 2020 2020 Annual Report. No new tractors. Boo. https://www.thriplow-farms.co.uk/blog/v1ydbn1skqcou1a17225sny7g4n6ry 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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